Yuzuru Hiraga

Baron Yuzuru Hiraga
Japanese Admiral Baron Yuzuru Hiraga
Born	March 8, 1878 Tokyo, Japan
Died	February 13, 1943(1943-02-13) (aged 64) Tokyo, Japan
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Service/branch	Imperial Japanese Navy
Years of service	1901 - 1943
Rank	Vice Admiral
Awards	Order of the Sacred Treasure Order of the Rising Sun

Vice Admiral Baron Yuzuru Hiraga (平賀 譲^?, Hiraga Yuzuru, March 8, 1878 – February 13, 1943) was a career naval officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy, Doctor of Engineering and head of the engineering school of Tokyo Imperial University and a leading Japanese naval architect in the 1910s and 1920s, responsible for designing a number of famous warships, many of which would later see action during World War II. He participated in establishing the Chiba Institute of Technology from 1941.

Hiraga was born in Tokyo and grew up in Yokosuka, Kanagawa although his family was from Hiroshima, where his official family registration was located. He graduated from what is now Hibiya High School, and entered the engineering department of Tokyo Imperial University in 1898, specializing in marine engineering. He was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1899, but allowed to continue his studies, and graduated in 1901 as a sub-lieutenant. He immediately went to work for the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal as a design engineer for new warships. Promoted to lieutenant on 28 September 1903, he was transferred to the Kure Naval Arsenal in 1905.

From 1905, at the height of the Russo-Japanese War, Hiraga was dispatched to the United Kingdom for further studies. He left Yokohama in January, and travelling across the Pacific Ocean, the United States and the Atlantic Ocean, he arrived in London in April. From October, he was enrolled in the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, where he studied the latest techniques in warship design. He graduated in June 1908, and spent the next six months touring various shipyards in France and Italy before returning to Japan in early 1909. In September of the same year, he became a professor of engineering at Tokyo Imperial University, and was promoted to lieutenant-commander on 1 October.