Nobutake Kondō (近藤信竹, Kondō Nobutake, 25 September 1886 – 19 February 1953) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. As commander of IJN 2nd Fleet, the Navy's principal detached force for independent operations, Kondō was regarded as second in importance only to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
From 1920 to 1923, Kondō was stationed in Germany, as part of the Japanese delegation to confirm Germany's adherence to the provision of the Treaty of Versailles. On his return to Japan, he was stationed for six months on the battleship Mutsu, and promoted to commander on 1 December 1923. From 1924 to 1925, he was an aide-de-camp to Crown PrinceHirohito. On completion of this task, he became an instructor at the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy and was promoted to captain. He subsequently served in a number of positions on the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff. He was captain of the Kako from 1929 to 1930 and of the battleship Kongō from 1932 to 1933.
In the second night action of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 14/15 November 1942, Kondō personally led the battleship Kirishima along with cruisers Atago, Nagara, Sendai, and Takao, in what was to have been a decisive attack to eliminate the threat from Henderson Field through a massive nocturnal shelling. Instead, Kondō was confronted by an American task force with battleships USS Washington and USS South Dakota, and was defeated, losing Kirishima. This defeat marked a turning point of the entire Guadalcanal campaign.[3]
Kondō was apparently tainted by the Guadalcanal failures, and was soon removed from seagoing commands, or indeed any positions of real authority. Yamamoto's demotion of Kondō was nonetheless less harsh than that of his predecessor, Hiroaki Abe, due to Imperial Navy culture and politics. Kondō, who also held the position of second in command of the Combined Fleet, was a member of the upper staff and "battleship clique" of the Imperial Navy while Abe was a career destroyer specialist. Kondō was not reprimanded or reassigned but instead was left in command of one of the large ship fleets based at Truk.[4]