Nishimura Shoji (1889-1944)

Every army or navy has officers who attain high rank in spite of being nonentities.  Nishimura Shoji, a rear admiral at the start of the Pacific War, was described by historian Samuel Eliot Morison as “one of the least competent Japanese flag officers.”  Historian Paul Dull is kinder, defending Nishimura’s rush to sea in pursuit of nonexistent submarines at the Battle of Balikpapan, which left a Japanese transport force at the mercy of an American destroyer force, as a reasonable decision based on what Nishimura knew at the time.  For one thing, as John Prados pointed out, the Dutch submarine K-17 had in fact torpedoed the Tsuruga Maru earlier in the day.  But even Dull cannot hide the utter lack of imagination in Nishimura’s robot-like march into oblivion at Surigao Strait, though Prados suggests that Nishimura, who had just lost his only son in a seaplane accident, was operating under a death wish. Roscoe (1953) suggests that Nishimura raced to his doom to avoid coming under the command of Shima Kyohide, who was commanding a smaller force but was senior by a few months.

Nishimura had considerable experience in destroyers prior to being promoted to rear admiral in in November 1940. He commanded Destroyer Squadron 4 when war broke out, which was at Magong preparing to sail with 2 Surprise Attack Force to seize Vigan, Luzon. In addition to the actions mentioned previously, he was present at the Battle of the Java Sea, the Midway operation, and the carrier battles of the Guadalcanal campaign.

Service record

References

Dull (1978)

Dupuy et al. (1992)

Fuller (1992)

Materials of IJN (accesssed 2008-2-18)

Morison (1948)

Roscoe (1953)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia (c) 2007-2008 by Kent G. Budge.  Index

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