page_title: Shigeyoshi Inoue
section_title: As admiral
hierarchical_section_title: Shigeyoshi Inoue / Biography / As admiral
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 井上成美。ギターを演奏する井上 English: Shigeyoshi Inoue (1889–1975)
context_page_description: Shigeyoshi Inoue was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. He was commander of the Japanese 4th Fleet and later served as Vice-Minister of the Navy. A noted naval theorist, he was a strong advocate of naval aviation within the Japanese Navy. General Abe Nobuyuki was his brother-in-law.
context_section_description: On 15 November 1933, Inoue was given command of Hiei. However, his administrative talents could not be overlooked, and he returned to shore duties after slightly over a year and a half. Inoue was a protégé of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, and was strongly opposed to the Tripartite Pact with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Inoue was a leader of the "leftist clique" within the Japanese military, which opposed Japan's increasing trend towards fascism and overseas expansionism.
  Promoted to rear admiral on 15 November 1935, Inoue was made vice commander of the IJN 3rd Fleet, which covered the China theater of operations in 1939 and further promoted to vice admiral the same year. As with Yamamoto, he was a strong proponent of naval aviation. Inoue was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (first class) in 1940.
  In 1940, Inoue became commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy Aviation Bureau, and submitted his thesis for a radical restructuring of the Imperial Japanese Navy to Naval Minister Koshirō Oikawa early in 1941. He was highly critical of the Navy's shipbuilding programme, with its emphasis on battleships over aircraft carriers. Inoue was given command of the IJN Fourth Fleet later the same year, based out of Truk. He was thus in command of Japanese naval forces during the Battle of Guam and Battle of Wake Island. He subsequently relocated his headquarters to Rabaul for Operation Mo, intended to occupy Port Moresby. However, after the Japanese defeat at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, he was relieved of his command in October, and returned to Japan to become commander of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. He became Vice Minister of the Navy in the closing stages of World War II, was promoted to full admiral on 15 May 1945 (one of the last two promotions made to this rank), and officially retired on 15 October of the same year.
  After the war, Inoue became an English and music teacher to children at his house in Yokosuka. The site of his home is now a public park.
  His grave is at Tama Cemetery in Fuchū, Tokyo, Japan.
caption: Inoue playing guitar
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