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Mochitsura Hashimoto 橋本以行 | |
|---|---|
 Mochitsura Hashimoto, as a lieutenant commander (c. 1943) | |
| Born | 14 October 1909 Kyoto, Japan |
| Died | 25 October 2000 (aged 91) Kyoto, Japan |
| Allegiance |  Empire of Japan |
| Service/ |  Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Years of service | 1931–1945 |
| Rank | Commander |
| Commands held | Ro-31 I-158 Ro-44 I-58 |
| Battles/wars | Second Sino-Japanese War World War II |
| Awards | Order of the Golden Kite, 5th Class Order of the Rising Sun, 5th Class Order of the Sacred Treasure |
| Other work | Shinto 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 court-martial of Charles B. McVay III, the commanding officer of Indianapolis, a move which was controversial at the time. He was later part of an effort to exonerate McVay, which was eventually successful. Hashimoto, whose entire family died in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, later became a Shinto priest. He died in 2000, thirteen days after learning of McVay's exoneration.