After the long sea voyage, he was appointed to the battleship Haruna on August 27 , 1915, and was commissioned as a naval ensign on December 13 of the same year. On December 1, 1916 , he was ordered to serve on the cruiser Kasuga of the First Special Fleet and participated in World War I, serving as a convoy escort in the Australian area. On October 10, 1917, he was relieved of the Kasuga and returned to Japan, and on December 1 of the same year, he was commissioned as a lieutenant, and after receiving basic officer training as a general student at the Naval Torpedo School and then as a general student at the Naval Gunnery School, on December 1, 1918 , he was appointed as the naval officer of the destroyer Keyaki. One of his colleagues on the Keyaki was Yamagata Masasato (who was the torpedo officer of the Keyaki at the time, and later became an admiral). On September 25, 1919, he joined the cruiser Tokiwa. He became a naval officer on the cruiser Izumo on June 3 of the same year, and on December 1, he was appointed a naval captain and entered the Naval War College as a Class B student (majoring in navigation).
After graduating, he was assigned to survey the South Seas Dominion as the navigation officer of the special service ship Matsue on June 3, 1921. After returning to Japan, he became the navigation staff officer of the Second Fleet (Commander-in-Chief Vice Admiral Nakano Naoe) on November 1, 1922 . While on duty, he experienced the Great Kanto Earthquake. Later, the exam regulations for Class A students at the Naval War College were shortened from two years of sea service after promotion to captain to one year, so he became eligible to take the exam and entered the Naval War College as a Class A student (23rd class) on December 1, 1923. His classmates at this time included Okuda Kikuji, Tsunoda Kakuji, Suzuki Yoshio, Takagi Takeo, and Hoshina Zenshiro. After graduating in November 1925, he became the navigation officer of the light cruiser Natori on December 1 of the same year. However, after six months of employment, on May 1, 1926, he suddenly became an Imperial Attaché to Prince Takamatsu Nobuhito and was assigned to the heavy cruiser Furutaka where Prince Takamatsu was stationed. On December 1 of the same year, he was appointed as a naval lieutenant commander.
After serving as a military attaché to the Imperial Family, he was appointed aide to the military attaché in the UK on May 21, 1927, and travelled to the UK, where he took over from his classmate and predecessor, Lieutenant Commander Miki Shigeji, and was scheduled to become an aide after a year of language study, but due to Lieutenant Commander Miki's death in a traffic accident, he began work as an aide after only one month in the UK. On November 12, 1929, he was relieved of his aide position and was selected as an attendant to the Plenipotentiaries at the London Naval Treaty Conference, which was scheduled to be held at the time. After the conference ended on April 15, 1930, he was appointed aide to Military Councillor Anpo Kiyotane, who was an attendant to Prince Takamatsu in London, and returned to Japan with General Anpo via the Trans-Siberian Railway on August 5 of the same year. On August 15th after returning to Japan, he was appointed as the navigator and squad leader of the heavy cruiser Furutaka, which was a reserve ship at the time, and spent about four months there. On December 1st of the same year, he became a member of the First Section of the Naval General Staff. During his time at the Naval General Staff, he participated in the Seio-kai, a social group for mid-ranking officers of the Army and Navy working at the central government. On December 1st, 1931, he was appointed as a Commander.
After working at the Naval General Staff for three years, on November 1, 1933, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Third Fleet (Commander-in-Chief Vice Admiral Shinjiro Imamura, Chief of Staff Colonel Shiro Takasu), and on October 22 , 1934, he was appointed as an instructor (strategic affairs) at the Naval War College. On November 15, 1935, he was appointed as a Captain.
Captain Kondo Taiichiro.
While working at the Naval War College, he witnessed the February 26 Incident. On December 1, 1936, he was appointed Senior Adjutant to the Ministry of the Navy , and served closely with Minister of the Navy Mitsumasa Yonai, Vice Minister of the Navy Isoroku Yamamoto, and Director of the Military Affairs Bureau Shigeyoshi Inoue. His colleagues at the time included Ichiro Yokoyama and Michinori Yoshii (both adjutants to the Ministry of the Navy). On August 20, 1938, Kondo was appointed captain of the cruiser Yakumo , his first and last captaincy, and participated in his third training fleet. After returning to Japan, on February 10, 1939, he was ordered to be stationed in the UK again, and took his family with him as a military attaché. During his time as a military attaché, World War II broke out in Europe, and Britain, as a party to the conflict, began to be subjected to air raids. Furthermore, relations between Japan and Britain became strained, so on October 14 , 1941, Kondo boarded the Tatsuta Maru and returned to Japan just in time. As the Tatsuta Maru was docked alongside the wharf in Yokohama, Chief of Naval Staff Matsunaga Keisuke came on board and gave Kondo an implied notice of the outbreak of war between Japan and the US. On October 15 of the same year, he was appointed rear admiral.
After the outbreak of war, on January 3, 1942, he was assigned to Manila as Chief of Staff of the Third Southern Expeditionary Fleet (Commander-in-Chief Vice Admiral Sugiyama Rokuzo). On January 11, 1943, he joined the Naval General Staff, and on January 30, he became Chief of Staff of the China Area Fleet. On August 20, he served in mainland China for the first time in about ten years as a military attaché in Shanghai. On October 15, 1944, he was appointed Vice Admiral. On January 2, 1945, he was assigned to Saigon as Commander of the 11th Special Base Force, where he remained until the end of the war. After the war, he was captured by the Allied forces and forced to live in an internment camp near Tsudomo, about 50 kilometers north of Saigon. He was then transferred to Singapore, and demobilized on December 6, 1946, and placed in the reserves on the same day. On March 31, 1948, he was provisionally banned from holding public office.
Vice Admiral Kondo Taiichiro speaking through an interpreter to British Captain Scott Bell after the Allied landing in Saigon, 1945.
After the war, he tried various business ventures but was unsuccessful, so he made a living mainly as a translator, making use of his English skills. He passed away on December 24, 1975 at the age of 82.
