Mochitsura Hashimoto

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Mochitsura Hashimoto
橋本以行
Commander
Commands heldRo-31
I-158
Ro-44
I-58
Battles/warsSecond Sino-Japanese War
World War II
AwardsOrder of the Golden Kite, 5th Class
Order of the Rising Sun, 5th Class
Order of the Sacred Treasure
Other workShinto priest

Mochitsura Hashimoto (橋本以行, Hashimoto Mochitsura, 14 October 1909 – 25 October 2000) was a Japanese officer and a submarine commander in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. He was captain of the submarine I-58, which sank the American heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis in 1945 after its delivery of parts and enriched uranium for the first atomic weapon used in wartime, Little Boy, prior to the attack on Hiroshima.

Born in Kyoto and educated at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, Hashimoto volunteered for service in submarines and was aboard submarine I-24 during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Hashimoto commanded coastal patrol and training submarines off Japan for much of the war, and in 1944 took command of I-58, a submarine which was equipped to carry kaiten manned torpedoes. After a number of unsuccessful operations, under the command of Hashimoto I-58 sank Indianapolis on 30 July with two Type 95 torpedoes while on a midnight patrol.

Hashimoto's submarine then returned to Japan, one of the few Japanese submarines to survive the war. Hashimoto was called to testify on behalf of the prosecution at the

atomic bombing of Hiroshima, later became a Shinto
priest. He died in 2000, thirteen days after learning of McVay's exoneration.

Early life

Mochitsura Hashimoto was born in 1909 in

commissioned in 1931.[4]

In 1937, Hashimoto married Nobuko Miki, the daughter of a successful Osaka businessman.[3] The couple had three sons; Mochihiro, born in 1940,[5] Nobutake, born in 1942, and Tomoyuki, born in 1944;[6]and Sonoe, a daughter born in 1947.

Military career

In 1934, Hashimoto volunteered for the submarine service,[1] and in 1937, he served aboard destroyers and submarine chasers off the shores of the Republic of China. On 15 November, as a sub-lieutenant, Hashimoto was assigned to the crew of the gunboat Hozu, and was promoted to lieutenant on 1 December.[7][8] During that time, his brother was killed in action fighting on the Chinese mainland.[3]

In 1938, he was assigned to the destroyer

I-155 on 15 October in the same role.[13][14]

On 15 July 1941, he was assigned to the

Kure.[15][16] Throughout the year, the submarine conducted training maneuvers with a group of midget submarines.[5] On 18 November, I-24 and her group sailed from Kure with a midget submarine attached to her afterdeck. Steaming eastward, she surfaced 10 miles (16 km) off Waikiki on 6 December.[5] The sub was a part of a large group of submarines which would support the Attack on Pearl Harbor.[17] Hashimoto witnessed the final ritual of Kazuo Sakamaki and Kyoji Inagaki, who would man the midget submarine, which cast off at 05:30. I-24 remained at a rendezvous point to wait for the midget sub, which never came. On 9 December, I-24 steamed for Kure.[6]

Upon the submarine's return to Kure, Hashimoto was detached and assigned to the advanced course at Submarine School on 1 February 1942, to prepare him for command of a submarine.[18] Graduating from this course on 30 June, Hashimoto was given command of submarine Ro-31, a coastal defense vessel.[17] For the remainder of 1942, Hashimoto operated his ship in home waters off Yokosuka training crews and trying new equipment and doing research for the development of Japanese submarine doctrine. He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 November.[19] In 1943, he was given command of submarine I-158 for coastal defense, and later in the year was given command of submarine Ro-44 for the same duties.[6]

Commanding I-58

In May 1944, Lieutenant Commander Hashimoto was given command of

Shimonoseki Strait into the Inland Sea and to Kure for supplies. She then moved to Hirao where she loaded six kaitens.[24]

Japanese submarine I-58 in 1944

On 29 December, she left on her first war patrol, steaming for the

U.S. Army Air Forces, and departed on 16 July on another war patrol. At the time, she was one of only four large submarines left in the Japanese Navy, and her mission was to harass Allied lines of communications.[27][28][29]

Passing through the Inland Sea around minefields, I-58 headed for the east coast of the Philippines intending to attack ships there. Passing east of Okinawa and spotting no ships, she cruised south arriving at the Guam-Leyte shipping lane on 27 July.[30][31] She spotted a tanker escorted by a destroyer and Hashimoto ordered her to launch two kaitens at 14:31 and 14:43. She heard explosions at 15:21 and 15:31 but her crew was unable to determine if the kaitens had struck their targets. Hashimoto reported a tanker assumed sunk.

Sinking of Indianapolis

On 29 July, Lt. Cmdr. Hashimoto ordered the submarine to make for an area where he believed shipping lanes between Guam, Leyte,

Kure at about 03:00 noting the destruction of the ship.[37]
He later wrote of the incident:

We had the moon behind us and the enemy ship was now clearly visible. She had two turrets aft and a large tower mast. I took her to be an Idaho-class battleship. The crew were all agog, awaiting the order to fire the torpedoes. All was dead quiet ... the favorable moment for firing was approaching. ... At last in a loud voice, I gave the order 'Stand by—fire!' The torpedo-release switch pressed at intervals of two seconds and then the report came from the torpedo room, "All tubes fired and correct." Six torpedoes were speeding, fanwise, toward the enemy ship. ... Bringing the boat on to a course parallel with the enemy, we waited anxiously. Every minute seemed an age. Then on the starboard side of the enemy by the forward turret, and then the after turret there rose columns of water to be followed immediately by flashes of bright red flame. Then another column of water arose from alongside the Number 2 turret and seemed to envelop the whole ship—"A hit, a hit!" I shouted as each torpedo struck home, and the crew danced for joy.[38]

Hashimoto ordered I-58 northward looking for additional ships to attack.

Gyokuon-hōsō signaling the Japanese surrender and end of the war. She traveled up the Inland Sea and arrived at Hirao where Hashimoto emotionally informed his crew of the end of the war.[40] After the war, it was confirmed Indianapolis was the only ship I-58 had sunk.[1] It was the last Japanese naval success of World War II.[41] When Hashimoto came home from the war, he learned that his entire family had been killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
on 7 August.

McVay court-martial

USS Indianapolis in 1945

Three days after Japan's formal surrender in Tokyo Bay, Hashimoto was promoted to his final rank of

New York Times and in other newspapers. The next day he arrived in Washington, D.C. where hearings were taking place.[44] For the duration of his time in the United States, he spoke through translator Francis Earl Eastlake from the Office of Naval Intelligence.[45]

Hashimoto spoke first with

evasive maneuvers ineffectual in thwarting his ability to attack the ship.[48][49] Still, his testimony is considered integral in McVay's eventual conviction that he had been negligent.[50] Charles Butler McVay III was exonerated in 2001. Following his appearance at the trial, Hashimoto remained in U.S. custody under guard until early 1946, when he was returned to Japan aboard USS Effingham.[51]

With the

Chicago Sun criticized his trip, which it estimated to have cost $1,820 (equivalent to $30,800 in 2023).[51]

Postwar career

After his return to Japan, Hashimoto worked as a demobilization officer with the naval section of the Ministry of Demobilization, responsible for demobilizing veterans and dismantling what remained of the Japanese Navy. He completed his final assignment in June 1946, when he became a civilian merchant shipping captain, and opted to retire from the military.[26][53] When his ship accidentally collided with and sank a freighter, he was forced to resign.[54]

Afterward, he became a

Shinto priest at a shrine in Kyoto.[55] He was later interviewed by author Dan Kurzman for his 1990 book Fatal Voyage, in which Kurzman stated, "Commander Hashimoto was amazed by the Americans. While penned up in his dormitory during the trial, he was treated more like an honored guest than an enemy officer who had caused the deaths of so many American boys."[56] In 1954, Hashimoto authored a book Sunk: The Story of the Japanese Submarine Fleet, 1941–1945 in which he detailed Japanese submarine operations in the war, including an account of the sinking of Indianapolis.[57][58][59]
Noted American submarine author Captain Edward "Ned" Beach, author of Run Silent Run Deep, wrote the introduction for the American publication of Hashimoto's book.

In December 1990, Hashimoto met with some of the survivors of the Indianapolis at Pearl Harbor, where he stated through a translator: "I came here to pray with you for your shipmates whose deaths I caused," to which survivor Giles McCoy simply responded: "I forgive you."[56]

In 1999, he assisted the surviving crew of the Indianapolis in attempting to exonerate McVay of blame for the ship's sinking, writing a letter to the

Senate Armed Services Committee
in which he stated, just as he had more than five decades earlier, that even if the Indianapolis had been zigzagging, there would have been no difference: "I would have been able to launch a successful torpedo attack against his ship whether it had been zigzagging or not." Regarding McVay's conviction, Hashimoto wrote:

Our peoples have forgiven each other for that terrible war and its consequences. Perhaps it is time your peoples forgave Captain McVay for the humiliation of his unjust conviction.[56]

Hashimoto died at the age of 91 on 25 October 2000,[60] five days before a resolution to posthumously exonerate Captain McVay was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton[citation needed]. Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig refused to allow the language to be entered into McVay's service record. When George W. Bush became president and Gordon England became secretary of the Navy, Secretary England directed Navy captain William J. Toti, former commanding officer of USS Indianapolis (SSN-697) to enter the exoneration language into McVay's service record in May 2001, finally closing this chapter of American naval history.

References

Footnotes
  1. USS Alfred. However, no U.S. Navy officer had ever been tried in connection with the loss of his vessel in wartime.[47]
Citations
  1. ^ a b c Fredriksen 2001, p. 213.
  2. ^ Newcomb 2000, p. 1.
  3. ^ a b c Newcomb 2000, p. 2.
  4. ^ Tucker 2011, p. 343.
  5. ^ a b c Newcomb 2000, p. 3.
  6. ^ a b c Newcomb 2000, p. 4.
  7. ^ Naval appointment dated 15 November 1937, supplement to publication No. 91. Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072072500 (jp)
  8. ^ Naval appointment dated 1 December 1937, Publication supplement,Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072072500 (jp)
  9. ^ Naval appointment dated 15 December 1938, supplement to publication (limited access) No. 273, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072074800 (jp)
  10. ^ Naval appointment dated 20 May 1939, Publication (limited access) No. 338, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072075700 (jp)
  11. ^ Naval appointment dated 1 June 1939, Publication (limited access) No. 342, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072075900 (jp)
  12. ^ Naval appointment dated 1 December 1939, Publication (limited access) No. 408, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072077100 (jp)
  13. ^ Naval appointment dated 20 March 1940, Publication (limited access) No. 453, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072077800 (jp)
  14. ^ Naval appointment dated 15 October 1940, Publication (limited access) No. 543, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072079100 (jp)
  15. ^ Naval appointment dated 15 July 1941, Publication (limited access) No. 673, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072081600 (jp)
  16. ^ Naval appointment dated 31 October 1941, Publication (limited access) No. 736, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072082900 (jp)
  17. ^ a b Fredriksen 2001, p. 214.
  18. ^ Naval appointment dated 2 February 1942, Publication (limited access) No. 805, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072084200 (jp)
  19. ^ Naval appointment dated 1 November 1942, Publication (limited access) No. 974, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072087700 (jp)
  20. ^ Harrell 2005, p. 65.
  21. ^ Newcomb 2000, p. 5.
  22. ^ Newcomb 2000, p. 6.
  23. ^ Harrell 2005, p. 66.
  24. ^ Newcomb 2000, p. 7.
  25. ^ a b Newcomb 2000, pp. 8–9.
  26. ^ a b Tucker 2011, p. 344.
  27. ^ Newcomb 2000, p. 10.
  28. ^ Stanton 2002, p. 79.
  29. ^ Boyd & Yoshida 2002, p. 179.
  30. ^ Newcomb 2000, p. 57.
  31. ^ Stanton 2002, p. 80.
  32. ^ a b Newcomb 2000, pp. 58–59.
  33. ^ Stanton 2002, pp. 93–95.
  34. ^ Stanton 2002, p. 100–101.
  35. ^ Newcomb 2000, pp. 60–61.
  36. ^ Tucker 2011, p. 375.
  37. ^ Newcomb 2000, p. 62.
  38. ^ Harrell 2005, p. 68–71.
  39. ^ Newcomb 2000, p. 119.
  40. ^ Newcomb 2000, p. 168.
  41. ^ a b Fredriksen 2001, p. 215.
  42. ^ Naval appointment dated 11 September 1945, Publication No. 1908, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072108400 (jp)
  43. ^ Naval appointment dated 29 November 1945, Publication No. 1994, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072147800 (jp)
  44. ^ a b Newcomb 2000, pp. 213–214.
  45. ^ a b Newcomb 2000, p. 224.
  46. ^ Newcomb 2000, pp. 221–222.
  47. ^ a b Newcomb 2000, p. 223.
  48. ^ Newcomb 2000, pp. 226–227.
  49. ^ Stanton 2002, p. 265–266.
  50. ^ Newcomb 2000, p. 248.
  51. ^ a b Newcomb 2000, p. 228.
  52. ^ a b Newcomb 2000, p. 215.
  53. ^ Ministry of Demobilization appointment dated 11 June 1946, Publication No. 155, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, reference code C13072159300 (jp)
  54. ^ Washington Post 1991/09/29
  55. ^ Fredriksen 2001, p. 216.
  56. ^ a b c "Mochitsura Hashimoto". USSIndianapolis.org. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  57. ^ Hashimoto 2010, p. i.
  58. ^ Harrell 2005, p. 67.
  59. ^ Boyd & Yoshida 2002, p. 242.
  60. ^ Stanton 2002, p. 280.

Bibliography

External links
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