Ships
- IJN Hatsushimo Captain, in command on 1 March 1942 · Relieved on 27 November 1942
Lieutenant Commander Satoru Kohama was a destroyer captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy. On 1 March 1942 he was in command of Hatsushimo, and he held that appointment until 27 November 1942.
Hatsushimo was a Hatsuharu-class destroyer, laid down at Uraga in January 1933, launched that November, and completed on 27 September 1934. Her name means first frost. She served in Destroyer Division 21 with Hatsuharu, Wakaba, and Nenohi, under Destroyer Squadron 1 of the First Fleet, armed with 12.7-centimeter guns and triple torpedo tubes.
At the start of the Pacific War the division was kept in home waters on anti-submarine patrol. On 18 December 1941 Hatsushimo left Tokuyama, met Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo’s carrier force on its return from Hawaii, and escorted the ships into Hashirajima on 23 December. In January and February 1942 the division went south, and Hatsushimo supported the landings at Kendari, Ambon, Makassar, and Timor as Japanese forces moved through the eastern Dutch East Indies. Kohama was her captain through that passage.
The destroyer then turned north. In June 1942 Hatsushimo sailed with the force that put troops ashore on Attu and Kiska, and she stayed on duty among the Kurils and the Aleutians through the summer and autumn, screening and carrying supplies in fog and snow. Between 27 and 30 October she and Wakaba escorted the light cruisers Kiso, Abukuma, and Tama to the two islands while reinforcements landed. She joined Wakaba off Shimushu, sailed on 7 November, put provisions ashore at Kiska, and was back at base on 10 November.
On 27 November 1942 Atsuo Iritono relieved him as captain. Kohama’s tour had covered Hatsushimo’s first year of open war, from the escort of the returning carriers and the Dutch East Indies landings to the first season of operations in the Aleutians.