Ships
- IJN Akatsuki Captain from 13 April 1942 · In command when she was lost, 13 November 1942
Osamu Takasuka was an officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy and a graduate of the Naval Academy's 51st class. On 13 April 1942 he became captain of the destroyer Akatsuki. He was still in command when she was lost on 13 November 1942, and he was killed in that sinking. He was a lieutenant commander when he took her, was promoted to commander on 1 November 1942, and was raised to captain after his death.
His previous sea command was the destroyer Oboro, which he had taken after commanding Kamikaze. In the last week of November 1941 Oboro steamed from Yokosuka to Haha-jima in the Bonins. Early in December she sailed with the force sent to seize Guam. Through the winter he used her on escort and patrol work in the Marshalls, including a passage with the minelayer Tsugaru from Saipan to Kwajalein. Between 6 and 12 April 1942 Oboro returned from Kwajalein by way of Saipan to Yokosuka. On 12 April he was relieved. The next day he took command of Akatsuki from Kyuji Aoki.
Akatsuki was already in the yard. She had entered dock at Uraga on 11 April, and after she came out the remaining work went on at Yokosuka, so his first days aboard were a repair period. On 18 April American bombers from carriers struck the home islands. On 19 April Akatsuki left Yokosuka with the destroyers Ikazuchi and Hibiki in the ships held ready against a further raid. They returned without meeting the American carriers.
On 20 May Akatsuki was assigned to the Northern Force. That day she and Hibiki left Nagasaki screening the new battleship Musashi and brought her into Kure on the afternoon of 21 May. In June and July, during the Aleutian campaign, Takasuka patrolled the waters off Kiska and Attu. When Hibiki was damaged at Kiska, Akatsuki took her in tow and brought her to Paramushiro in the Kurils. On 25 July Akatsuki arrived back at Yokosuka by way of Kataoka Bay.
In the autumn the destroyer was sent to the Solomons. During the late-October fighting off Guadalcanal she engaged American ships near the beach, and her fire damaged the fast minesweeper Zane. Coast-defense guns answered. A shell hit the magazine of No. 3 turret on the port side and failed to set it off. Four men were killed and one was badly wounded. She reached the Shortland Islands again on 26 October. On 2 November, the day after Takasuka's promotion to commander, Akatsuki joined the cruiser Tenryu and a large group of destroyers on a troop run to Guadalcanal. From 3 to 6 November she escorted the seaplane carriers Chitose and Chiyoda from the Shortlands to Truk, where the October damage received temporary repairs.
The stay at Truk was brief. She sailed again to screen Rear Admiral Hiroaki Abe's bombardment force, led by the battleships Hiei and Kirishima, on the approach to Guadalcanal. In the early hours of 13 November 1942, in the first night action of that battle, Akatsuki was forward on the right flank of the Japanese line in the waters between Guadalcanal and Savo Island. Her searchlight settled on the light cruiser Atlanta. American gunfire came back in a heavy concentration and overwhelmed the destroyer while her torpedoes were still in the tubes. Hits disabled the steering and the port engine. Burning, listing to port, and settling by the stern, she dropped out of the formation and sank soon afterward. Yusuke Yamada, who led Destroyer Division 6, died in the same loss, with much of the wardroom and nearly the whole crew. A few survivors were taken prisoner afterward. Takasuka was in command of Akatsuki when she went down.