Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

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UncleBourbon
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Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#1

Post by UncleBourbon » 05 Mar 2021, 01:40

For a while now I'd known the story of Commander Shunsaku Kudo, who was credited with rescuing 442 British and American sailors of the HMS Encounter and USS Pope during the battle of Java Sea, widely regarded as a humanitarian act.

However, I just recently learned that the credit he was given for rescuing sailors of the USS Pope actually belonged to Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime of the Inazuma; Kudo commanded the Ikazuchi.

The only references I've been able to find on Takeuchi Hajime in English were in reference to this rescue; however, none detail his conduct in relation to prisoners.
The closest I have is Geoffrey Blain, one of the British sailors rescued by either the Yamakaze or Ikazuchi in "Huryo: The Emperor's Captives":
The conduct of the Japanese sailors was exemplary, and it was the high point of Japanese behavior during my three and one-half years in captivity. This standard of treatment, was not to last.
I'd be incredibly interested to learn if Lt. Cmdr. Hajime's treatment of American sailors was as good as the British sailors captured in the same battle. I'm also curious about his experiences during the rest of the war, and whether he survived. If anyone has any information, I'd truly appreciate it.

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#2

Post by ijnfleetadmiral » 05 Mar 2021, 02:08

TAKEUCHI Hajime 竹内一
Naval Academy 52 (62/236)
BORN - ??? in Fukui Prefecture
MID - 24 July 1924
ENS - 01 December 1925
LTJG - 01 December 1927
MUTSUKI Crewmember - ??? - 01 December 1930
LT - 01 December 1930
KINU Division Officer - 01 December 1930 - ???
HASU Crewmember - 01 December 1932 - 01 November 1933
MAYA Division Officer - 01 November 1933 - 25 May 1934
MOCHIZUKI Torpedo Officer - 25 May 1934 - 08 February 1935
SAZANAMI Torpedo Officer - 08 February 1935 - 01 December 1936
SHIRATSUYU Torpedo Officer - 01 December 1936 - 01 December 1937
LCDR - 01 December 1937
ATAGO Torpedo Officer - 01 December 1937 - 20 May 1938
TENRYU Torpedo Officer - 20 May 1938 - 15 December 1938
W-1 Commanding Officer - 15 December 1938 - 03 February 1940
NUMAKAZE Commanding Officer - 03 February 1940 - 15 October 1940
INAZUMA Commanding Officer - 15 October 1940 - 06 November 1942
(ADD) YUZUKI Commanding Officer - 15 October 1940 - 15 September 1941
CDR - 01 November 1942
KUROSHIO Commanding Officer - 10 November 1942 - 23 February 1943
Osaka Guard District Adjutant - 15 September 1944 - 05 December 1944
CAPT - 05 September 1945

He survived the war; his date of death is unknown.
MSG, MS State Guard (Ret.) - First Always!


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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#3

Post by fontessa » 05 Mar 2021, 03:59

Some corrections / additions:
ijnfleetadmiral wrote:
05 Mar 2021, 02:08
TAKEUCHI Hajime 竹内一
Osaka Guard District Adjutant - 15 September 1944 - 05 December 1944
TAKEUCHI Hajime 竹内一
Osaka Guard Distinct Staff Offiser: 1 November 1943 - 15 September 1944
Osaka Guard Distinct Adjutant: 15 September 1944 - 25 March 1945
(ADD) Osaka Guard Distinct Staff Offiser:15 September 1944 - 25 March 1945
Attached to Mizuru Naval Distinct: 25 March 1945 - 10 October 1945
Transferred to Reserve: 10 October 1945

雷 Inazuma commanded by 竹内一少佐 LCDR Takeuti Hajime participated in the Battle of the Java Sea on 1 March 1942, and fired torpedoes to the British heavy cruiser Exeter, causing her to sink. At this time, Inazuma's onboard broadcast "Salute to the sinking enemy ship" was broadcast, and her crew members salute on her deck. Immediately after, sailors jumping into the sea from the Excelter were seen, and 376 British soldiers were rescued by LCDR Takeuchi's order to "rescue enemy soldiers."

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#4

Post by cstunts » 05 Mar 2021, 18:54

Much more to the story, but it is fairly complicated...

POPE's men (all 151 of them) had almost been rescued the day before by IKAZUCHI, but their brash behavior incensed the Japanese & they were not picked up after all.

So they were doubly fortunate that INAZUMA picked them up on the following day. All the more so because (according to contemporary IJN sources) their HQs (i.e., Ranin butai commander VADM Takahashi Ibo on ASHIGARA) was not especially pleased that any survivors were rescued in the first place, since it interfered with IJN operations significantly.

Add: there's a v. good Facebook page on the Makassar POW camp(s) that has extra info on POPE's survivors, etc.

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#5

Post by UncleBourbon » 06 Mar 2021, 06:27

ijnfleetadmiral wrote:
05 Mar 2021, 02:08
He survived the war; his date of death is unknown.
Thank you very much! A roster of the ships he commanded definitely helps.
fontessa wrote:
05 Mar 2021, 03:59
雷 Inazuma commanded by 竹内一少佐 LCDR Takeuti Hajime participated in the Battle of the Java Sea on 1 March 1942, and fired torpedoes to the British heavy cruiser Exeter, causing her to sink. At this time, Inazuma's onboard broadcast "Salute to the sinking enemy ship" was broadcast, and her crew members salute on her deck. Immediately after, sailors jumping into the sea from the Excelter were seen, and 376 British soldiers were rescued by LCDR Takeuchi's order to "rescue enemy soldiers."

fontessa
Thank you for the corrections! The anecdote definitely adds to Lt. Cmdr. Takeuchi's character.
cstunts wrote:
05 Mar 2021, 18:54
Much more to the story, but it is fairly complicated...

POPE's men (all 151 of them) had almost been rescued the day before by IKAZUCHI, but their brash behavior incensed the Japanese & they were not picked up after all.

So they were doubly fortunate that INAZUMA picked them up on the following day. All the more so because (according to contemporary IJN sources) their HQs (i.e., Ranin butai commander VADM Takahashi Ibo on ASHIGARA) was not especially pleased that any survivors were rescued in the first place, since it interfered with IJN operations significantly.

Add: there's a v. good Facebook page on the Makassar POW camp(s) that has extra info on POPE's survivors, etc.
VERY interesting, thank you immensely. Can I ask the source on your info regarding the Ikazuchi deserting the sailors over their behavior, only for the Inazuma to come back the next day? Not that I doubt it, but I'd be interested to hear more.
The information regarding their HQs definitely adds to why this is widely considered a humanitarian episode, but it makes me wonder why Commander Kudo received all the credit, while also making me truly interested in Lt. Cmdr. Takeuchi.

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#6

Post by cstunts » 07 Mar 2021, 02:11

Source: 3-page article from Japanese text (publ. by Soshi-sha? not sure if a book or zine piece) sent to me after translation into English quite a few years ago.

Additionally, I had at one time a photo of the men from POPE in their cutter/rafts being towed behind a ship, and that confirmed the story IMHO.
Sadly, that image was lost in a PC crash a few years back, but perhaps I'll find it again or someone else can re-locate it.

Hope this is helpful.

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#7

Post by KevDen » 08 Mar 2021, 09:45

One of the reasons Kudo received 'all the credit' (or has become more widely known) was because one of the men he rescued was Sam Falle (later Sir Sam) off HMS Encounter, who went on to become a British diplomat, wrote a book about his experiences in the Java Sea campaign, his rescue / capture and his time as a POW. He even journeyed to Japan many years after the war (in 2008) to meet Kudo, but unfortunately Kudo had already died, but Sir Sam visited his grave. So, much was made of this visit in the press, and covered in the TV news at the time. I may even have one of the articles scanned, and possibly the above photo cstunts refers to of Pope's boats being towed, but thats going to take some digging. If I locate I will post.

BTW, If you havent already seen it, then I reccomend Niek Koppens 'The Battle Of The Java Sea' video documentry, though I cant recall if Sir Sam is interviewed, it does contain other survivor interveiws. Here is a link to in on Amz UK;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Archive-War-Ba ... dvd&sr=1-1
“We are off to look for trouble. I expect we shall find it.” Capt. Tennant, HMS Repulse. 8 December 1941
“A review of the situation at about 11.00 was not encouraging.” Capt. Gordon, HMS Exeter. 1 March 1942

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#8

Post by KevDen » 08 Mar 2021, 10:09

I cant find the towing of Pope's boats photo that is referred to above, nor the article I have (somewhere) of Sir Sams visit to see Kudo.

However, here is a link to Sir Sam telling his story, and below a photo I believe is (?, although I stand to be corrected if not) of survivors from HMS Encounter in their boats alongside IJN Ikazuchi.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/a ... ture.shtml
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Ikuzuchi rescuing Encounter survivors.jpg
Last edited by KevDen on 08 Mar 2021, 19:51, edited 1 time in total.
“We are off to look for trouble. I expect we shall find it.” Capt. Tennant, HMS Repulse. 8 December 1941
“A review of the situation at about 11.00 was not encouraging.” Capt. Gordon, HMS Exeter. 1 March 1942

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#9

Post by cstunts » 08 Mar 2021, 19:14

I cannot locate that image, but it definitely exists somewhere online...Here's a rough drawing from memory which may help if someone else comes across it. My recollection is that the rafts were probably all bunched up rather more tightly than my sketch shows...

FWIW
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DD-225 men towed.png
DD-225 men towed.png (73.65 KiB) Viewed 2245 times

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#10

Post by KevDen » 09 Mar 2021, 12:25

Yes that's the look of the photo I have seen too Don, but as hard as I look through my files I can't find it. Do you mind if I repost that sketch on a couple of the other forums to see if someone can turn it up, or should I leave that too you?

As for other folks here, as I know you have no doubt read this, here is a link to Sir Sam's article about the Java Sea actions and his capture. It's the one I have and mentioned in an earlier post, but all my pages are single JPG images, so easier to post this link than all of them. It was published in a 1987 issue of the USNI magazine called 'Proceedings'.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedi ... y/chivalry

Sam (Falle) also published a book entitled 'My lucky Life', but as the title states it is about his varied life experiences - of which he had many - and although it includes a worthwhile section on Java Sea, his capture, etc, it is not the main focus of the book.
“We are off to look for trouble. I expect we shall find it.” Capt. Tennant, HMS Repulse. 8 December 1941
“A review of the situation at about 11.00 was not encouraging.” Capt. Gordon, HMS Exeter. 1 March 1942

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#11

Post by fontessa » 09 Mar 2021, 15:07

Hello,

It was a little confused for me, so I organized it based on this book for miself. This book describes in detail.
恵隆之介 敵兵を救助せよ! Rescue the enemies! written by Megumi Ryunosuke
Partially available on the internet.
http://www.bushido-seishin.com/outline/story.html
KudoBook.jpg
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Executor sank at 12:50 at 12:50 on March 1st..
Ships other than Inazuma pursued Encounter and Pope.
Inazuma rescued 375 survivors of Exeter.
Encounter sank at 13:30.
Pope sank at 15:40.

Ikazuchi, who was on alert nearby, found numerous survivors of Exeter and Encounter on March 2.
LCDR Kudo ordered, "All crew members except the first turret should do rescue work."
Ikazuchi rescued 422 men, including CO / EO of Executor and CO of Encounter.

Royal Navy survivors boarding Ikazuchi
UKSurvivers1.jpg
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Royal Navy survivors on Ikazuchi
UKSurvivers2.jpg
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At March 3rd Ikazuchi on alert found survivors of Pope got on 8 cutters and 7 rubber boats. Ikazuchi sent a signal saying, "Get in me," but Pope survivors refused and demanded that they be towed. This towing had to slow down the Ikazuch speed and could be hit by torpedoes from enemy submarines. When she contacted the headquarters of VADM Takahashi Ibo, She was ordered to "Stop the rescue and join them", so Ikazuchi obeyed it. On the next day, Inazuma replaced Ikazuchi found Pope survivors again. Perhaps because of exhaustion, 151 Pope survivors boarded Inazuma obediently. Some of Pope's survivers blamed this "rescue interruption" after the war. But was that so? "Rescue work" was done by stopping our ship. During this time she was a good target for enemy submarines. They were dangerous area where 7 Japanese ships were sunk by enemy submarines from February 27th to March 1st. Both Ikazuchi and Inazuma performed dangerous rescue work for "seamanship".

Pope survivors on cutters and rubber boats
USSurvivers1.jpg
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Pope survivors on Inazuma
USSurvivers2.jpg
USSurvivers2.jpg (161.68 KiB) Viewed 2206 times

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#12

Post by KevDen » 09 Mar 2021, 15:55

Thank you sir for posting the 'missing' photos!!!

And (unintentionally) clarifying another matter to boot. ;-)

MUCH appreciated!

PS. I think your 'Executor' should read "Exeter".
“We are off to look for trouble. I expect we shall find it.” Capt. Tennant, HMS Repulse. 8 December 1941
“A review of the situation at about 11.00 was not encouraging.” Capt. Gordon, HMS Exeter. 1 March 1942

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#13

Post by cstunts » 09 Mar 2021, 17:36

Thanks Fontessa! Thanks KD!

All good stuff. Yes, Megumi's sections were sent to me back in 2010--but I had to do a lot of deep excavating to find that info--and the image is indeed the photo I had acquired off the internet at some point. (I'm pleased with my little sketch from memory, frankly.)

In addition to more IJN data, I reread some POPE survivor accounts that I have, too, and NONE mention this incident at all. Very intriguing. I suspect they did not wish to acknowledge the serious (potentially mortal) mistake they'd made...

HOWEVER: the pix shown here of POPE's survivors cannot be from INAZUMA, because POPE's men were rescued in the night, just after midnight in fact, and the DD that picked them up did so by turning her lights on briefly, etc. when the U.S. survivors signaled in the dark with a battle lantern.
So, these photos must be from IKAZUCHI's brief encounter...

Thx again.

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#14

Post by KevDen » 09 Mar 2021, 19:49

cstunts wrote:
09 Mar 2021, 17:36
(I'm pleased with my little sketch from memory, frankly.)
As well you should be! You missed you calling sir, you should have been an artist not an author! :P
cstunts wrote:
09 Mar 2021, 17:36
In addition to more IJN data, I reread some POPE survivor accounts that I have, too, and NONE mention this incident at all. Very intriguing. I suspect they did not wish to acknowledge the serious (potentially mortal) mistake they'd made...
I assume you refer to Ikazuchi slowly towing the boat and rafts and then being summoned by Takahashi in no uncertain terms to "stop the rescue and join them"? And while I dont mean to make light of the plight of the survivors, a rather funny image comes into my head of that scene with Ikazuchi slowly towing that 'string' of a boat and rafts, but I'll leave that to each's own imagination. :lol:
cstunts wrote:
09 Mar 2021, 17:36
HOWEVER: the pix shown here of POPE's survivors cannot be from INAZUMA, because POPE's men were rescued in the night, just after and night in fact, and the DD that picked them up did so by turning her lights on briefly, etc. when the U.S. survivors signaled in the dark with a battle lantern. So, these photos must be from IKAZUCHI's brief encounter...
Yes I tend to agree.

However, is there is a date error in the following, or am mistaken?

"At March 3rd Ikazuchi on alert found survivors of Pope got on 8 cutters and 7 rubber boats. Ikazuchi sent a signal saying, "Get in me," but Pope survivors refused and demanded that they be towed. This towing had to slow down the Ikazuch speed and could be hit by torpedoes from enemy submarines. When she contacted the headquarters of VADM Takahashi Ibo, She was ordered to "Stop the rescue and join them", so Ikazuchi obeyed it. On the next day, Inazuma replaced Ikazuchi found Pope survivors again. Perhaps because of exhaustion, 151 Pope survivors boarded Inazuma......."


Shouldn't it start "At March 2nd", because if we go down further it then says "On the next day Inazuma.......", which would make that March 4th, and as far as I was aware all Pope survivors were rescued on 3rd?

Or as you say above Don, if they were rescued at night, was it just into the morning of 4th when their rescue completed?
Last edited by KevDen on 09 Mar 2021, 22:37, edited 1 time in total.
“We are off to look for trouble. I expect we shall find it.” Capt. Tennant, HMS Repulse. 8 December 1941
“A review of the situation at about 11.00 was not encouraging.” Capt. Gordon, HMS Exeter. 1 March 1942

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Re: Lieutenant Commander Takeuchi Hajime & POWs of the USS Pope

#15

Post by cstunts » 09 Mar 2021, 21:26

Or as you say above Don, if they were rescued at night, was it just into the morning of 4th when their rescue completed?

Yes, just after midnight according to the Japanese.

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