Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

was an officer in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

. He is notable for the humanitarian act of rescuing 442 enemy British and American sailors from the

Java Sea The Java Sea ( id, Laut Jawa, jv, Segara Jawa) is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its nort ...

in 1942.

Biography

Born in 1901, Kudō graduated from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1923 and was assigned to the light cruiser as a midshipman, followed by the battleship ''Nagato'' in October 1924. He was commissioned in December 1924, was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1926, and took his first command, the

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

''Hatakaze'', in 1929. He assumed command of in November 1940.

Rescue of 442 enemy sailors

On March 2, 1942,

Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...

Kudō ordered ''Ikazuchi'' to rescue 442 survivors from the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

destroyer and

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

destroyer . These ships had been sunk the previous day, along with , in the

between

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

, off the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n port of

Soerabaja Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...

. The survivors had been adrift for some 20 hours, in rafts and lifejackets or clinging to floats, many coated in oil and unable to see. Among the rescued was Sir

Sam Falle Sir Samuel Falle (19 February 1919 – 20 February 2014) was a British diplomat and decorated Royal Navy officer. He served as Ambassador to Kuwait and Sweden, and High Commissioner to Singapore and Nigeria. Career Falle was educated at Victoria ...

, later a British diplomat. This humanitarian decision by Lieutenant Commander Kudō placed the ''Ikazuchi'' at risk of submarine attack, and interfered with her fighting ability due to the sheer numbers of rescued sailors. The action was later the subject of books . This forum discussion contains a brief summary of the 2006 Megumi book's account of the rescues of HMS Encounter and USS Pope.Sam Falle, My Lucky Life: In War, Revolution, Peace and Diplomacy, Book Guild Ltd, 29.08.1996 and a 2007 TV programme. In Japanese. See also and . . In Japanese. A summary of the 2007 television program. According to the same documentary, humility and sadness sealed Kudō Shunsaku's lips after ''Ikazuchi'' was sunk with all its crew, thus he never told anyone about this heroic rescue.

Post-war life

After the war, Kudō left the navy and moved to Kawaguchi, Saitama. In 1979, he died of

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kudo, Shunsaku 1901 births 1979 deaths Deaths from stomach cancer Deaths from cancer in Japan Japanese military personnel of World War II Imperial Japanese Navy officers Japanese people of World War II People from the Empire of Japan Bushido Kawaguchi, Saitama