Toshio Abe

Toshio Abe
阿部 俊雄
Born(1896-04-27)27 April 1896
Ehime Prefecture, Japan
Died29 November 1944(1944-11-29) (aged 48)
Off Cape Shiono, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
Military career
Allegiance Japan
Branch
 Imperial Japanese Navy
Service years
1918–1944
Rank
 Rear admiral (posthumous)
CommandsDestroyer Division 8
Destroyer Division 10
Ōyodo
Shinano
Conflicts
Pacific War

Toshio Abe (阿部 俊雄 (Abe Toshio), 27 April 1896 – 29 November 1944) was an officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy who led destroyer divisions in the Pacific War and was the only captain of the aircraft carrier Shinano. A torpedo specialist, he commanded Destroyer Division 8 at the Battle of Badung Strait in February 1942 and Destroyer Division 10 at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, where his destroyers took off the crew of the burning carrier Hiryū and scuttled her.: 167 : 150  He went down with Shinano when the American submarine USS Archerfish sank her on her maiden voyage on 29 November 1944, and he was posthumously promoted to rear admiral.

Early life

Abe was born on 27 April 1896 in Ehime Prefecture. He was the younger brother of the naval officer Hiroaki Abe.: 179  He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Navy's Naval Academy with its 46th class in 1918.

Interwar career

Abe specialised in torpedo warfare, and he completed the advanced course at the navy's Torpedo School, where he later served as an instructor.: 167  He commanded the destroyer Fumizuki from 1931, the river gunboats Fushimi and Sumida in 1933 and 1934, and the destroyer Asagiri from 1937. He became commander of Destroyer Division 21 in 1939 and was promoted to captain in November 1940.

Pacific War

Destroyer Division 8

In September 1941, Abe became commander of Destroyer Division 8. On the night of 19–20 February 1942, the division's four destroyers, Asashio, Ōshio, Arashio and Michishio, were escorting the transports of the invasion force off Bali when an Allied squadron under the Dutch rear admiral Karel Doorman attacked them.: 150  In the Battle of Badung Strait that followed, the Japanese destroyers sank the Dutch destroyer HNLMS Piet Hein and damaged the American destroyer USS Stewart and the Dutch cruiser HNLMS Tromp, while Michishio was badly damaged.: 150  The Allied force withdrew, and Japan captured Bali and its airfield. The chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, Matome Ugaki, praised the action in his diary as a "truly splendid night battle" by a single destroyer division.: 179 

Destroyer Division 10

In March 1942, Abe took command of Destroyer Division 10, which formed part of the screen of the 1st Carrier Striking Force at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. After the carrier Hiryū was set on fire by American dive bombers, Abe brought his destroyer alongside to help fight the fires, according to the American writer Don Keith. Early on 6 June, Hiryū was abandoned, and the destroyers Makigumo and Kazagumo took off her crew. Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi and Captain Tomeo Kaku chose to remain aboard. Makigumo was ordered to scuttle the carrier, and Keith wrote that Abe gave the order to fire the torpedoes. Makigumo fired two torpedoes at Hiryū, and the carrier sank later that morning.

Under Abe, the division escorted the carrier striking force at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in August 1942, and the Vanguard Force of his brother, Vice Admiral Hiroaki Abe, at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942. In February 1943, he became head of studies at the Torpedo School, while also serving on the navy's technical council and as head of its research department.

Ōyodo

In May 1944, Abe became captain of the light cruiser Ōyodo, which was then the flagship of the Combined Fleet under Admiral Soemu Toyoda.: 204 

Shinano

Fitting out

Shinano had been laid down as the third Yamato-class battleship, and she was converted into an aircraft carrier after the Japanese losses at Midway.: 104–106  On 15 August 1944, Abe was appointed her chief equipping officer, and on 1 October he was formally designated her commanding officer. After the defeat in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Navy General Staff brought her completion date forward to 15 October 1944, and many tests, including air-tightness tests of her watertight compartments, were omitted.: 142 : 114  According to the author Hideo Andō, Abe argued daily with the ship's chief designer, Captain Tatsuo Maeda, over unfinished work.: 168 

Only eight of the carrier's twelve boilers were working, and Abe wanted more time to complete her flooding tests. Many of her crew were untrained replacements.: 196  At the handover ceremony at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 19 November 1944, Abe's hands reportedly shook with anger as he received the certificate of delivery.: 204  On 27 November, his request to postpone the voyage in order to complete more work and training was rejected.

Choice of route

Shinano was ordered to sail from Yokosuka to Kure to complete her fitting out. At a conference on the eve of departure, the captains of the three escorting destroyers of Destroyer Division 17 urged a daytime passage along the coast, where they believed that submarines could be spotted more easily. Abe chose instead to sail at night on a route through the open ocean, because the carrier had no aircraft of her own and no air cover could be expected.: 215  He also instructed the escorts not to open gaps in the screen by chasing submarines.

Sinking

Shinano left Yokosuka at 13:30 on 28 November 1944, escorted by the destroyers Hamakaze, Yukikaze and Isokaze, with Abe in tactical command. That evening, she was detected by the American submarine USS Archerfish commanded by Joseph F. Enright. When a submarine was sighted at 22:45, Abe forbade the escorts to open fire for fear of revealing the carrier's position, as he believed that it was a decoy for a wolfpack. He ordered the ships to zigzag in an attempt to outrun the submarine, but by midnight the carrier had to slow down because a propeller shaft bearing was overheating. At 03:09 on 29 November, four torpedoes from Archerfish hit Shinano on her starboard side.

According to a 1953 article in Proceedings, Abe at first showed little anxiety over the damage and kept the ship at 18 knots, reducing speed only when it was too late. He later ordered the men of the boiler and machinery departments to flood the outboard boiler rooms on the port side in an attempt to correct the list. After the carrier lost power, Hamakaze and Isokaze tried to tow her, but the tow cables parted. Abe gave the order to abandon ship at 10:18, according to Combined Fleet, while Toyoda gave the time as 10:37.: 285  Shinano capsized and sank at 10:57, with the loss of 1,435 officers and men.

Abe chose to go down with the ship. Accounts of his last moments differ, as the 1953 Proceedings article stated that he retired to his cabin, while Toyoda wrote that he remained near the chrysanthemum crest at the bow with a junior navigation officer.: 286  He was posthumously promoted to rear admiral.

Inquiry

In December 1944, the navy convened an inquiry into the loss, known as the "S Incident" investigation committee, under Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa.: 327  According to Toyoda, the committee concentrated on the choice of the night route through the open ocean and on why the ship had sunk after only four torpedo hits, and surviving officers felt that they were being blamed for failures by the Navy General Staff and the shipyard.: 329  The committee's report was destroyed at the end of the war.: 332  The former staff officer Masataka Chihaya recalled that the report pointed to defective watertight compartments and omitted tests, the choice of route and escort, and the crew's lack of training, without assigning clear responsibility.: 259 

Personal life

Former subordinates described Abe as having the bearing of an old-style samurai.: 167  According to his wife, Kiyo, he burned his naval papers in the garden the day before Shinano sailed.: 339 

On 19 July 1990, his son Toshihiko Abe met Enright at his home in Carmel Valley, California, while researching his book Japan's Hidden Face.: 323  Toshihiko wrote that Enright offered his condolences to Abe's widow and explained the engagement with charts, and that the two men parted with the hope that such a war would never happen again.: 257 

Honours

On 10 September 1919, Abe was granted the court rank of Senior Eighth Rank.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Tully, Anthony P. "IJN Shinano". Combined Fleet. Imperial Flattops. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Andō, Hideo (1976). 幻の空母信濃 [The Phantom Aircraft Carrier Shinano] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Tairiku Shobō.
  3. 1 2 3 Terauchi, Masamichi (2015). 海軍駆逐隊 [Navy Destroyer Divisions] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Ushio Shobō.
  4. 1 2 "Battle of Midway and Aleutians". NavWeaps. Orders of Battle. 15 February 2024. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Nevitt, Allyn D.; Tully, Anthony P. "IJN Makigumo: Tabular Record of Movement". Combined Fleet. Long Lancers. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  6. 1 2 Andrews, James (3 July 1987). "Dramatic WWII account. Target: battleship Shinano". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Toyama, Misao, ed. (1981). 陸海軍将官人事総覧 海軍篇 [Personnel Register of Army and Navy Flag Officers: Navy] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Fuyō Shobō. ISBN 4-8295-0003-4.
  8. 1 2 Ugaki, Matome (2019). 戦藻録 [Sensōroku] (in Japanese). Vol. 1. Tokyo: PHP Kenkyūsho.
  9. 1 2 3 "Battle of Badung Strait". The Royal Netherlands Navy in World War II. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  10. 1 2 3 Keith, Don (20 July 2004). "Gallant Lady: A Biography of USS Archerfish – Book Review". Armchair General. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  11. ↑ Nevitt, Allyn D. "IJN Kazagumo: Tabular Record of Movement". Combined Fleet. Long Lancers. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  12. ↑ "Hiryū". Pacific Wrecks. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Toyoda, Minoru (1983). 空母信濃の生涯 [The Life of the Aircraft Carrier Shinano]. Shūeisha Bunko (in Japanese). Tokyo: Shūeisha. ISBN 4-08-750624-X.
  14. ↑ Keith, Don (20 July 2004). "Gallant Lady: A Biography of USS Archerfish – Book Review". Armchair General. p. 5. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Gekkan Panzer editorial department (16 August 2020). 旧海軍空母「信濃」 護衛艦隊 米潜水艦…三者三様の立場から見る「運命の22時間」 [Former Imperial Navy carrier Shinano, escort fleet and US submarine: the fateful 22 hours seen from three perspectives]. Norimono News (in Japanese). p. 2. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  16. 1 2 3 "Shinano: The Jinx Carrier". Proceedings. United States Naval Institute. February 1953. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  17. 1 2 3 Isobe, Ryo (10 June 2022). "The Yokosuka-built Aircraft Carrier Shinano". Commander, Navy Region Japan. United States Navy. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  18. ↑ Gekkan Panzer editorial department (16 August 2020). 旧海軍空母「信濃」 護衛艦隊 米潜水艦…三者三様の立場から見る「運命の22時間」 [Former Imperial Navy carrier Shinano, escort fleet and US submarine: the fateful 22 hours seen from three perspectives]. Norimono News (in Japanese). p. 3. Retrieved 7 November 2026.
  19. ↑ Abe, Toshihiko (1998). Japan's Hidden Face: A Call for Radical Change in Japanese Society and Commerce. With Jeanne Rejaunier. Philadelphia: BainBridge Books. ISBN 1-891696-05-X.
  20. ↑ Abe, Toshihiko (2008). 憂国の情理 [The Reason and Feeling of Patriotism] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Sakuhinsha.
  21. ↑ 叙任及辞令 [Appointments and Assignments]. Kanpō (in Japanese) (2132). 11 September 1919.