Ships
- IJN Mikuma Captain from 1 November 1940 · In command when she was lost, 6 June 1942
Captain Shakao Sakiyama of the Imperial Japanese Navy took command of the heavy cruiser Mikuma on 1 November 1940. He had previously commanded the light cruiser Abukuma. He stayed with Mikuma through the first six months of the Pacific War and was still her captain when she was lost on 6 June 1942.
Mikuma was a Mogami-class ship. By the time Sakiyama came aboard she had been rebuilt as a heavy cruiser, her original 155 mm guns replaced by 203 mm turrets. She served in Cruiser Division 7 with Mogami, Kumano, and Suzuya. The division spent the months after his appointment in fleet exercises. In July 1941 Mikuma covered the Japanese move into southern French Indochina and escorted army shipping toward Saigon.
From December 1941 the division operated with the forces sent against Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, screening invasion convoys. On the night of 28 February to 1 March 1942 Mikuma fought in the Battle of the Sunda Strait. The Allied cruisers Houston and Perth were sunk in a close, confused night action that also damaged Japanese warships and transports, some of them struck by torpedoes fired in the melee. Gunfire hit Mikuma as well. Her electrical power failed briefly and was restored. Six of her men were killed and eleven wounded.
In April 1942 Mikuma entered the Indian Ocean with Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's raiding force, which included the light carrier Ryujo and several other cruisers. After the attack on Colombo, Ozawa divided his ships. Sakiyama was given the southern group: Mikuma, Mogami, and the destroyer Amagiri. On 6 April that group intercepted British merchantmen in the Bay of Bengal and sank several of them, Amagiri finishing some with torpedoes. Ozawa's force then returned to Singapore.
For the Midway operation Mikuma sailed in late May 1942 with Cruiser Division 7 in the invasion force under Rear Admiral Takeo Kurita, who flew his flag in Kumano. Sakiyama told his crew the purpose of the sortie as the ships left harbor. After the Japanese carriers were defeated, the division was ordered forward to shell Midway and then recalled toward Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. During the night retirement the American submarine Tambor sighted the cruisers. In the emergency turn that followed, Mogami collided with Mikuma. Mogami's bow was crushed. Mikuma's port fuel tanks were ripped open and she streamed oil. Sakiyama kept Mikuma with the damaged Mogami. Screened by destroyers, the two cruisers fell back to about twelve knots while Kumano and Suzuya went on with Kurita.
At dawn on 5 June aircraft from Midway found the pair. A Marine dive bomber crashed into Mikuma's after turret and started a fire. Bombers from high altitude did not hit. The oil and the smoke led carrier aircraft to the ships the next morning. On 6 June dive bombers from Enterprise and Hornet attacked in successive waves. Bombs struck Mikuma forward, near the bridge, and amidships. Ready ammunition and her own torpedoes exploded, opening the hull and driving fires the crew could not put out. Sakiyama was severely wounded on the bridge. He was lowered into a raft and taken off. Mikuma listed to port, capsized, and sank, with hundreds of her officers and men still lost. Nearby ships recovered only a portion of the company. The wounded captain was transferred to the cruiser Suzuya and died there of his injuries in the days after the battle.