Ships
- IJN Hatsukaze Captain from 15 December 1942
Commander Michio Oka of the Imperial Japanese Navy became captain of the destroyer Hatsukaze on 15 December 1942. He succeeded Kameshiro Takahashi, who had commanded her from the day she was commissioned on 15 February 1940.
Hatsukaze was a Kagerō-class destroyer built by Kawasaki at Kobe. In Destroyer Division 16 she served with Yukikaze, Tokitsukaze, and Amatsukaze, at first under Destroyer Squadron 2 of the Second Fleet. Through Takahashi's long command she escorted landing forces into the southern Philippines and the Netherlands East Indies, took part in the torpedo attack on the Allied squadron in the Battle of the Java Sea on 27–28 February 1942, supported the occupation of Christmas Island, and in June screened the transports sent toward Midway until that landing was abandoned. In July 1942 the division moved to Destroyer Squadron 10 of the Third Fleet. That autumn she guarded the carrier force at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and at the Battle of Santa Cruz, then entered the Kure Naval Arsenal for repairs.
Oka's appointment fell in that spell in home waters, after the autumn carrier battles and before the ship sailed again. On 28 December 1942 Commander Watanabe Yasumasa, who had lately commanded the destroyer Arashi, relieved him. Three days later Hatsukaze left Yokosuka with Tokitsukaze and Akizuki as escort for the carrier Zuikaku on the passage to Truk, and from there she returned to the South Pacific.
Later captains took her through the continuing Solomons campaign. On the night of 2 November 1943, in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, she collided with the heavy cruiser Myoko and lost her bow. American destroyers then sank her as she tried to withdraw. Buichi Ashida, her captain since 1 July 1943, was killed with 164 of her men. The Navy struck Hatsukaze from the list on 5 January 1944.