Ships
- IJN Akebono Captain from 25 July 1941
Lieutenant Commander Minoru Nakagawa took command of the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Akebono on 25 July 1941, coming to her from the destroyer Hayate. He was an officer of the Naval Academy’s 55th class. Akebono, a Fubuki-class ship whose name means daybreak, belonged to Destroyer Division 7 with Ushio and Sazanami. The division served with Carrier Division 1 in the First Air Fleet, the carrier force then fitting out for war.
On 1 December 1941, during training, Akebono damaged a propeller. The repair kept Nakagawa’s ship in home waters through the opening of the Pacific War, where she guarded battleships and ran antisubmarine patrols while the carriers were at sea on the Hawaii operation.
She was ready for distant duty again by the middle of January 1942. Between 12 and 17 January, Destroyer Division 7, with Ariake and Yugure, escorted the carriers Hiryu and Soryu from Hashirajima to Palau. Akebono was then detached to strengthen the covering force for the landing at Kendari, and she rejoined the division at Davao on 25 January. From 29 January to 25 February the division screened the heavy cruisers Nachi and Haguro in support of the landings at Ambon, Makassar, and Timor, and afterward entered Makassar.
On 1 March 1942, in the second phase of the fighting in the Java Sea, Akebono was among the Japanese cruisers and destroyers that closed with the British heavy cruiser Exeter, the British destroyer Encounter, and the American destroyer Pope. Those three Allied ships were lost to that Japanese force. Nakagawa then took Akebono back to the Yokosuka Navy Yard, where she underwent repairs at the end of March.
On 10 April 1942 Destroyer Division 7 passed to Destroyer Squadron 10, still in the First Air Fleet. From 23 to 27 April Akebono and Ushio escorted Myoko and Haguro from Yokosuka to Truk. At the Battle of the Coral Sea on 7 and 8 May, Nakagawa screened Admiral Takeo Takagi’s carrier striking force in company with Ushio and Destroyer Division 27. Through 15 May Akebono stayed with the carrier Zuikaku while that ship searched for Allied forces after the battle, and then returned to Truk by way of Bougainville.
In the first half of October 1942 Akebono and Ushio covered the escort carrier Unyo on a run between Truk and Yokosuka. On 20 October 1942 Nakagawa left the destroyer for the staff of the Second Fleet, and Kouhei Hanami succeeded him in command. Later captains of Akebono included Ietaka Inuzuka and Shiro Yoda.