{{short description|Japanese rear admiral}} {{Infobox military person | name = Ryūsaku Yanagimoto | native_name = 柳本 柳作 | native_name_lang = jpn | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1894|01|09}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1942|06|05|1894|01|09}} | birth_place = Hirado, Nagasaki, Japan | death_place = Pacific Ocean | image = Yanagimoto Ryusaku.jpg | image_size = | caption = Yanagimoto Ryūsaku as captain (1937-42) | nickname = | allegiance = {{flag|Empire of Japan}} | branch = {{navy|Empire of Japan}} | service_years = 1916–1942 | rank = 30px Rear Admiral (posthumous) | unit = | commands = ''Notoro'', ''Sōryū'' | battles = {{tree list}} * World War II ** Pacific War *** Attack on Pearl Harbor *** Battle of Wake Island *** Bombing of Darwin *** Indian Ocean Raid *** Battle of Midway{{KIA}} {{tree list/end}} | awards = Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class | other_work = }} {{nihongo|'''Ryūsaku Yanagimoto'''|柳本 柳作|Yanagimoto Ryūsaku|extra=9 January 1894 – 5 June 1942}} was captain of the {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Sōryū}} of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
==Biography== A native of Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture, The Yanagimoto family were descendants of Shinto priests who had been sent from Ise Jingu to Hirado in the Edo period. He had excellent grades as a child but his family was not wealthy and he had to work as a substitute teacher at his middle school while attending high school.
Yanagimoto graduated from the 44th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, placing 21st out of 95 cadets in 1916. As a midshipman, he was assigned to the cruiser {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Tokiwa||2}}, which made a long-distance navigational training cruise, visiting Esquimalt and Vancouver in Canada and San Francisco, San Pedro, Honolulu in the United States, Jaluit, Truk, Yap and Angaur in the South Seas Mandate, Hong Kong, and Magong, Keelung and Okinawa in Japan during 1917. On his return, he was assigned to the battleship {{ship|Japanese battleship|Kirishima||2}}. He served on the cruisers {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Niitaka||2}} in 1918 and {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Tsugaru||2}} in 1919. Promoted to lieutenant in 1919, he subsequently was assigned to the battleship {{ship|Japanese battleship|Katori||2}} in 1920, followed by {{ship|Japanese battleship|Ise||2}} in 1921. After attending advanced gunnery school, he was appointed chief gunnery officer on the {{ship|Japanese destroyer|Asakaze|1922|2}} in December 1923.
Yanagimoto graduated from the 25th class of the Naval Staff College in 1925, fifth out of a class of 20. He was promoted to lieutenant commander in December 1928, when he was assigned to serve as Vice Chief Gunnery officer on the battleship {{ship|Japanese battleship|Hiei||2}}. In September 1929, he was assigned to the staff of Yokosuka Naval District and from February 1930 was assigned to the personnel department of the Navy Ministry.
In May 1933 Yanagimoto was sent to the United Kingdom as a military attaché and promoted to commander later the same year. Seconded to the Imperial Japanese Navy Technical Department, he was part of the Japanese delegation at the Second London Naval Treaty negotiations in 1934. He was ordered to return to Japan in May 1935. He then served in a number of staff assignments within the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff. In December 1937, he received his first command: the auxiliary seaplane tender {{ship|Japanese seaplane carrier|Notoro||2}}.
He returned to administrative positions within the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff from November 1938. He was involved in the negotiations which led to the Tripartite Pact, which conversely he was vocally opposed to. He was also an early proponent of the use of radar technology, and severely criticized Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue and other members of the senior naval staff for their "old-fashioned thinking" and inability to grasp the importance of the new technology.
On 6 October 1941, Yanagimoto was given command of the aircraft carrier {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier| Sōryū||2}}, on which he participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor in the opening stages of the Pacific War. He was subsequently at the Battle of Wake Island and the Indian Ocean raids. Yanagimoto chose to go down with his ship when ''Sōryū'' was sunk by United States Navy aircraft at the Battle of Midway, despite the efforts of his crew to convince him to leave the burning bridge.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hanson|first=Victor Davis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGr16-CxpH8C|title=Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power|date=2007-12-18|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-42518-8|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1-link=Thomas C. Hone |last1=Hone |first1=Thomas |title=y: The Naval Institute Guide to the U.S. Navy's Greatest Victory |date=2013 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |isbn=978-1612511269}}</ref> He was posthumously promoted to the rank of rear admiral and awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class.
==Decorations== * 1943 – 50px|link=Order of the Rising Sun Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class
==References== *{{cite book | last = Parshall | first = Jonathan | author2 = Tully, Anthony P. | year = 2005 | title = Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway | publisher = Potomac Books | isbn = 1-57488-923-0 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/shatteredswordun0000pars }} *{{cite book | last = Fuchida | first = Mitsuo |author2=Okumiya, Masatake | year = 1957 | title = Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan | publisher = Hutchinson | pages =190–191}} *{{cite book | last = Toland | first = John | author-link = John Toland (author) | year = 1970 | title = The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945 | publisher = Random House | isbn = 0-8129-6858-1}} *{{cite book| last = Fukagawa | first = Hideki | year = 1981 | title = (陸海軍将官人事総覧 (陸軍篇)) Army and Navy General Personnel Directory (Army) | publisher = Fuyo Shobo | location = Tokyo | isbn = 4829500026}} *{{cite book | last = Hata | first = Ikuhiko | year = 2005 | title = (日本陸海軍総合事典) Japanese Army and Navy General Encyclopedia| publisher = St. Martin's Press | location = Tokyo| isbn = 4130301357}}
==External links== *{{cite web| last = Chen| first = Peter| url = http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=161| title = Yanagimoto Ryusaku | work = World War II Data Base| access-date = 2007-11-03}}
==Notes== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Yanagimoto, Ryusaku}} Category:1894 births Category:1942 deaths Category:Battle of Midway Category:Captains who went down with the ship Category:Sea captains Category:Military personnel from Nagasaki Prefecture Category:Military attachés for Japan Category:Japanese admirals of World War II Category:Imperial Japanese Navy personnel killed in World War II