Shiozawa was born in Matsumoto city, Nagano prefecture. His family was distillers of the famed traditional medicinal tonic "Yomeishu". Joining the navy on 16 December 1901, he passed out from the 32nd class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy on 14 November 1904, ranking 2nd out of 192 cadets. Famed admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was in the same class.
After graduating from the 13th class of the Navy Staff College in 1914, he was promoted to lieutenant commander on December 1, and was assigned as a naval observer to the United Kingdom from 1917-1919. He served as part of the Royal Navy crew on HMS Resolution and HMS Royal Oak in combat operations in World War I against the German Navy in 1917, as part of Japan's contribution under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Promoted to commandeer on December 1, 1919, after his return to Japan, he served in a number of staff positions. He was promoted to captain on December 1, 1923. He became captain of the heavy cruiserFurutaka in 1926. In late 1926 to early 1927, he again served as naval attaché to the United Kingdom. On his return in 1928, he was promoted to rear admiral on December 10.
At the time of the First Shanghai Incident of January 1932, Shiozawa was in command of a cruiser, four destroyers and two aircraft carriers anchored in the Yangtze River off the international city of Shanghai. They had come to protect Japanese citizens from attacks by Chinese mobs. In response, Nationalist forces moved into the Chinese suburb of Zhabei and skirmished with patrolling Japanese marines. With his men giving way to the more numerous Chinese forces, Shiozawa ordered planes from his carriers to drop bombs over densely populated Zhabei. The attack killed or injured thousands of civilians, and earned Japan the condemnation of the League of Nations.[2]
Shiozawa was promoted to full admiral on November 15, 1939. He commanded the Yokosuka Naval District from September 5, 1940 to September 10, 1941.
In May 1943, following Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's death in action, Shiozawa, a lifelong friend, presided over his state funeral.[3] Shiozawa died a few months later, in November 1943 of an acute pancreas ailment.
