Ships
- IJN Hosho Captain from 6 July 1944 · Relieved on 5 March 1945
Captain Yujiro Murota commanded the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Hosho from 6 July 1944 until 5 March 1945. In those months the old ship was a training carrier in the Seto Inland Sea, and his work was flight training, target duty, and short passages between Inland Sea anchorages.
Hosho had been completed in December 1922 as the first aircraft carrier laid down and finished for that purpose in the Japanese Navy. In her opening years Jiro Toshima, Heizaburo Fukuyo, and Ryutaro Kaizu commanded her while the fleet learned how to put aircraft onto a deck at sea. She later operated off China and, in June 1942, sailed with the battleship force at Midway to give that body a small air screen. After Midway she went back to training, with older fighters and torpedo bombers.
The ship Murota joined had just come out of dock at Kure. In June 1944, after the carrier losses in the Philippine Sea, her four 140-millimeter guns were removed and the flight deck was lengthened so she might handle newer aircraft. She undocked on 24 June and on 30 June left Kure for duty in the western Inland Sea and off Oita. Murota took command on 6 July, with that training routine already under way. The longer deck left her poorly suited to the open ocean, and she stayed inside the Inland Sea.
Through the autumn he moved Hosho between Kure and Beppu. She reached Beppu on 20 October 1944, returned to Kure on 22 October, and on 31 October sailed again for training in the western Inland Sea. On 10 November she arrived at Beppu and worked from there for the rest of the year. On 3 January 1945 she was at Kure, assigned with the escort carrier Kaiyo, the target ship Settsu, and the destroyer Yukaze to aircraft and target training. On 20 January she joined torpedo-attack practice with Air Group 453 and the submarine Ha-106.
On 1 February 1945 Hosho arrived at Tokuyama. She refueled the next morning and was then ordered to serve as a target vessel in the Inland Sea. Exercises set for 26 February with Air Group 762 were called off when a United States task force moved toward Tokyo. Murota was relieved of command on 5 March 1945 by Captain Shuichi Osuga. Hosho remained in home waters, took light damage in the July air attacks on Kure, and was still afloat at the surrender. She afterward carried Japanese servicemen and civilians home from overseas and was broken up in 1947.