Ships
- IJN Nowaki Captain from 25 December 1943
Setsuji Moriya was born on 25 January 1903 and graduated from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy with the 51st class in July 1923. His first sea duty took him through the armored cruiser Asama, the battleship Hyuga, the cruiser Iwate, and the carrier Hosho. In December 1926 he joined the destroyer Asakaze. A year later he was assigned to the submarine Ro-54, and in the summer of 1928 he went to the gunboat Sumida. He was promoted lieutenant on 1 December 1928.
He then specialized in torpedoes. He served in the heavy cruiser Haguro from December 1930, in the destroyer Sumire, and with the Sasebo Defense Force. In October 1934 he became torpedo officer of the destroyer Oite, and in October 1935 torpedo officer of the light cruiser Jintsu. Promoted lieutenant commander on 1 December 1936, he took command of Minesweeper No. 1 the same day. From the end of 1937 he taught at the Torpedo School. In November 1939 he was given the destroyer Suzukaze, and he left her in September 1940 for another tour at the school.
He was promoted commander on 15 October 1941. The first years of the Pacific War kept him on mine duty and base staffs. He instructed at the Mine School, served on the staff of the Oshima area base force, and in 1942 was mine officer with the Maizuru Defense Force. That autumn he joined the special base force at Chichijima as a staff officer and executive officer. In November 1943 he was attached to the Yokosuka Naval District.
On 25 December 1943 Moriya became captain of the Kagero-class destroyer Nowaki. The ship had commissioned in April 1941 under Mogotaro Koga, had been held briefly in June 1943 by Masami Araki, and had been commanded from July 1943 by Takeo Kanda. Moriya relieved Kanda while Nowaki was refitting at Yokosuka, with extra anti-aircraft guns and radar worked in and one main-battery turret landed to save weight.
In January 1944 he took her south again. Nowaki escorted heavy ships toward Truk, ran to Rabaul, and carried troops on to Lorengau in the Admiralties. In mid-February, as American carriers struck Truk, she sortied with the training cruiser Katori and the destroyer Maikaze. American surface ships sank both of those consorts. Nowaki ran east. The battleships Iowa and New Jersey chased her and straddled her at extreme range, among the longest shots American battleships fired at a ship during the war, before the chase was called off. Moriya brought Nowaki back to Japan.
She was at sea again with the Mobile Fleet for the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, and through the summer she worked on escort duty in the south. In October she joined Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's Center Force, fueled at Brunei, and came out through San Bernardino Strait for the Leyte battle. Off Samar on 25 October she was among the destroyers that attacked the American escort carriers and their screen. In that melee the destroyer Johnston was sunk under the gunfire and torpedoes of several Japanese ships. Afterward Nowaki took aboard survivors of the heavy cruiser Chikuma, lost in the same action.
That night, still east of Samar and trying to rejoin the fleet, Nowaki was caught by American cruisers and destroyers. Gunfire from Vincennes, Biloxi, and Miami, with Miller, Owen, and Lewis Hancock, set her on fire and left her stopped. A torpedo from Owen sank her south-southeast of Legazpi, Luzon, in the early hours of 26 October. Moriya died with his crew, and the men taken from Chikuma were lost with them. The navy dated his death 25 October 1944 and promoted him rear admiral after his death. Nowaki was struck from the Navy List on 10 January 1945.