captain of the cruiser , who oversaw her completion and remained captain until November 1935. He was followed by Captain Seiichi Itō, until April 1936. Mogami was commanded by Captain Shunji Isaki from November 1939 to January 1941. Mogami was damaged in a 1935 typhoon as part of the Fourth Fleet incident. In mid-1941, Mogami participated in the occupation of Cochinchina, French Indochina, from its forward operating base on Hainan after Japan and Vichy French authorities reached an understanding on use of air facilities and harbors from July 1941. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mogami was assigned to cover the Japanese invasion of Malaya as part of Cruiser Division 7 under Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's First Southern Expeditionary Fleet, providing close support for landings of Japanese troops at Singora, Pattani and Kota Bharu. In December 1941, Mogami was tasked with the invasion of Sarawak, together with Mikuma, covering landings of Japanese troops at Kuching. In February 1942, Mogami was assigned to cover the landings of Japanese troops in Java, Borneo and Sumatra. On 10 February, Mogami and were attacked by the submarine , which fired four torpedoes, all of which missed. The Battle of Sunda Strait At 2300 on 28 February 1942, Mikuma and Mogami, destroyer , light cruiser and destroyers , , , and engaged the cruisers and with gunfire and torpedoes after the Allied vessels attacked Japanese transports in the Sunda Strait. Both Houston and Perth were sunk during the engagement, as was Japanese transport Ryūjō Maru with IJA 16th Army commander Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura aboard. In March, Mogami and Cruiser Division 7 were based out of Singapore to cover Japanese landings on the Bangka Island off of Sumatra and the seizure of the Andaman Islands. Indian Ocean Raids From 1 April 1942 Cruiser Division 7 based from Mergui, Burma joined with Cruiser Division 4 to participate in the Indian Ocean raids against Allied shipping. Mikuma, Mogami and destroyer detached and formed the "Southern Group", which hunted for merchant shipping in the Bay of Bengal, while Chōkai, Destroyer Squadron 4's light cruiser and the destroyers , , and covered the northern areas. During the operation, the "Southern Group" claimed kills on the 7,726-ton British passenger ship Dardanus, the 5,281-ton British steamship Ganara, and the 6,622-ton British merchant vessel Indora, en route from Calcutta to Mauritius. On 22 April, Cruiser Division 7 returned to