Ships
- IJN Suzukaze Captain from 16 September 1940
- IJN Harusame Captain from 25 April 1942
Commander Masao Kamiyama of the Imperial Japanese Navy commanded fleet destroyers through the opening phase of the Pacific War. He took command of Suzukaze on 16 September 1940. On 25 April 1942 he took command of Harusame. Both were Shiratsuyu-class ships, armed with 12.7-centimeter guns and eight tubes for heavy oxygen torpedoes, with a designed speed of about 34 knots.
Suzukaze served in Destroyer Division 24 with Umikaze, Yamakaze, and Kawakaze, in Rear Admiral Shoji Nishimura's 4th Destroyer Squadron. Kamiyama had her through the last months of peace, as the squadron drilled and shifted toward its forward bases. In December 1941 the division sailed from Palau for the landings in the Philippines, then continued into the Netherlands East Indies in the first months of 1942. Suzukaze screened transports, covered troops going ashore, and kept station with the squadron flagship Naka through that run of island seizures.
He assumed command of Harusame on 25 April 1942. She was a ship of Destroyer Division 2, with Murasame, Yudachi, and Samidare. The division spent the early summer refitting and working up while the fleet prepared its next operations. By August the center of the war had moved to Guadalcanal, and Harusame joined the night destroyer runs that carried troops and supplies down the Slot from the Shortland Islands.
Those runs filled the autumn. On the night of 12–13 November 1942, Harusame went in with Rear Admiral Hiroaki Abe when Abe tried to bombard Henderson Field with battleships. The action was fought at very short range among battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. It left the battleship Hiei crippled and lost Yudachi, one of Harusame's division mates. Harusame cleared the sound with the retiring force and remained in commission.
The two commands follow the war from the first southern landings to the November night battle off Guadalcanal. On Suzukaze, from 16 September 1940, Kamiyama had a destroyer in the squadron that carried the seizure of the Philippines and the East Indies. On Harusame, from 25 April 1942, he had a destroyer in the force that tried to hold Guadalcanal with night runs and a battleship bombardment. The dates place a commander on the bridge of a fleet destroyer while the Imperial Navy still held the initiative, and through the battle in which that bombardment failed.