Gunichi Mikawa

Who was Gunichi Mikawa?

Gunichi Mikawa was a Vice-Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

Mikawa was the commander of a heavy cruiser force that carried out spectacular IJN victory over the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Navy at the Battle of Savo Island in Ironbottom Sound on the night of August 1942. In this battle, his squadron of cruisers, plus one destroyer, sank three USN cruisers, plus the RAN heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra; Mikawa's force suffered no losses in the actual battle, although heavy cruiser Kako was sunk by the undetected American submarine S-44 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.

Mikawa survived the war, and he retired back to Japan, where he died in 1981 at the age of 92.