Gunichi Mikawa

was a vice admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Mikawa was the commander of a heavy cruiser force that defeated the United States Navy (USN) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) at the Battle of Savo Island in Ironbottom Sound on the night of 8–9 August 1942.

In this battle, his squadron of cruisers, plus one destroyer, sank three USN cruisers, plus the RAN heavy cruiser ; Mikawa's force suffered no losses in the actual battle, although heavy cruiser was sunk by the undetected American submarine on the return to their base near Rabaul in the Bismarck Archipelago. However, his later career was of mixed success, and he was reassigned to lesser posts after the loss of a troop convoy destined for New Guinea. After the war Mikawa retired back to Japan, where he died in 1981 at the age of 92.

Early career Mikawa was a native of Hiroshima prefecture. He graduated from the 38th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1910, ranked third of his class of 149 cadets. After midshipman service in the cruisers and , and battleships and , he attended Naval Torpedo and Gunnery Schools from 1913–1914. In late 1914, he joined the cruiser for World War I duty, including a cruise to China. This was followed by tours in the destroyer and transport Seito and studies at the Japanese Naval War College.

From 1919 to 1920, Lieutenant Mikawa was attached to the Japanese delegation to the post-war Versailles Peace Treaty Conference in France. During the 1920s, Mikawa served as chief navigator on a number of ships, including the battleship and cruisers , , and Aso. He was subsequently an instructor at the Naval Torpedo School and held several other highly visible posts. At the end of the decade, Commander Mikawa was part of the delegation to the London Naval Treaty and shortly thereafter became naval attaché in Paris. Promoted to the rank of captain in late 1930, he returned to Japan to take up administrative and training duties.

He was commanding officer of the heavy cruisers and and the battleship in the mid-1930s. Mikawa had duty with the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff and Imperial General Headquarters from 1937 to 1939, then went to sea again to command a succession of fleet squadrons, first in cruisers and then in battleships. He was promoted to vice admiral on 15 November 1940. By this time, the writing was on the wall that Japan faced only defeat after defeat until it would be forced to surrender. Reassigned to shore duty in Japan following the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, Mikawa retired from active duty with the IJN in May 1945.

Massacre on board Akikaze

In March 1943, the destroyer evacuated civilians from the Roman Catholic mission headquarters on Kairiru Island and also a group of missionaries from Wewak. The roughly 60 civilians, mostly German missionaries, their servants and dependents (including three infants), were then massacred on board the destroyer under orders that came from 8th Fleet HQ. As commander of the 8th Fleet at the time, Mikawa and his chief of staff Vice Admiral Shinzō Ōnishi were implicated in the war crime. At 8th Fleet HQ a Lieutenant Shigetoku Kami debriefed the captain of Akikaze after the massacre, he was the only staff officer whose name appeared in the testimony of Japanese witnesses. Mikawa and Ōnishi were interrogated after the war as the Australian War Crimes Section realized that the order to murder over 60 civilians could not have been given by a single low-ranking officer.

Both admirals said that it was Kami, perhaps aided by another staff officer who was in charge of civilian affairs, who ordered the massacre independently. They also claimed that they were not aware of the massacre until after the fact. However, historian Yuki Tanaka writes that their claims are dubious when contrasted with wartime navy procedures in force when issuing orders. It was unlikely that communication officers of the 8th Fleet would agree to encrypt and deliver Kami's order to the commander of Akikaze, if it did not bear the countersignatures of Mikawa and Ōnishi. In addition, the more junior officers involved in the massacre died during the war and could not corroborate their claims. In the opinion of Captain Albert Klestadt, a member of the investigation, even if the admirals did not issue the orders themselves, they had to accept command responsibility for being unable to prevent war crimes committed by subordinates.

Postwar and final days

After the war, Admiral Mikawa lived a long and rather quiet life in Japan, dying in 1981 at the age of 92.

Mikawa and the Long Lance torpedo were commemorated in 1992 by a commemorative postage stamp issued by the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Mikawa's character also appeared in the 1970 American/Japanese war film Tora! Tora! Tora!, where he was portrayed by the Japanese actor Fujio Suga.