Ships
- IJN Arashi Captain from 25 November 1940
Commander Yasumasa Watanabe of the Imperial Japanese Navy was the first captain of the destroyer Arashi. He came to her from command of the destroyer Oshio. On 16 September 1940 he was named fitting-out officer at Maizuru Naval Arsenal, where the new Kagerō-class ship had been launched on 22 April. When Arashi was completed on 25 November 1940, Watanabe became her captain.
Arashi worked up on trials in home waters through the winter. Clerks at first mixed her mail with that of Yamakaze, because the characters of that ship's name, read backward, spelled Arashi. As Hagikaze, Nowaki, and Maikaze entered service, Destroyer Division 4 formed inside Destroyer Squadron 4 of the Second Fleet, and Arashi became the division flagship. Kosaku Aruga commanded the division. Watanabe commanded the ship. The last months of peace were spent on training.
On 29 November 1941 the division left the Terashima Strait and reached Mako, in the Pescadores, on 2 December. From 4 December 1941 until 11 January 1942, Arashi screened Admiral Kondo's Southern Force, the main body that stood as distant cover for the landings in Malaya and the Philippines. For part of that movement she also escorted troop convoys bound for Malaya.
Watanabe was still in Arashi when Destroyer Division 4 sailed with Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's carrier force for the Battle of Midway. At about 6:10 on the morning of 4 June 1942 an American submarine fired a torpedo at the destroyer. Arashi counterattacked with depth charges and stayed over the contact while the carriers altered course. The submarine was Nautilus. After she had been held down long enough to end the immediate danger, Watanabe increased speed and steered northeast to rejoin the striking force. American dive bombers that were still searching for the carriers sighted the lone destroyer and followed her wake in. The trail brought them to Nagumo's ships. Later that day Arashi stood by the burning carrier Akagi, helped Nowaki take off survivors, and early on 5 June joined in sinking the abandoned carrier with torpedoes.
On 4 June Arashi also picked up Ensign Wesley Osmus, a torpedo-plane pilot from the carrier Yorktown. Witnesses later told a United States naval investigation that Osmus was questioned, struck at the back of the neck with a fire axe at the stern, and put over the side. After the war the inquiry sought Watanabe so that he could be brought before a war-crimes court. He had already been killed in action, and the case was closed.
His last operation in Arashi was the carrier action of 26 October 1942. After American aircraft damaged Shokaku, the destroyer, still flagship of Destroyer Division 4, passed the damaged carrier's signals. Nagumo, his chief of staff Ryunosuke Kusaka, and the Third Fleet staff then moved into Arashi for the return to Japan. The force reached Yokosuka on 6 November, and Arashi entered dock on 8 November. On 15 November, with the refit still going on, Watanabe was relieved by Koshichi Sugioka. He became captain of the destroyer Hatsukaze on 28 December 1942. American motor torpedo boats later caught Hatsukaze on a transport run and left her badly damaged while he was still her captain. His last post was commander of Destroyer Division 1. On 18 December 1943 he was killed in action aboard the destroyer Numakaze.