Ibō Takahashi
was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Biography Takahashi was a native of Fukushima prefecture, born in a family of Eastern Orthodox faithful. His name "Ibō" was Chinese transliteration of "John". His father was a samurai of the Aizu domain, and doctor. He graduated from the 36th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1908 and was ranked 10th out of 191 cadets. He served his midshipman duty aboard the cruisers and and was assigned to the after being commissioned as an ensign in 1910. He subsequently served on the destroyer and battleship . As a lieutenant from 1914, he served on the and . After graduation from the Japanese Naval War College in 1919, he was promoted to lieutenant commander and assigned as Chief Gunnery Officer on the . Around this time, Takahashi became involved in the militant movement within the Japanese military, and helped influence the implementation of the proposal to devolve overall naval command from the Minister of the Navy to the Chief of Naval General Staff (the implementation of which was ratified by Emperor Hirohito on September 25, 1933). From August 1923 to August 1925, Takahashi was assigned as naval