Japanese Destroyer Yukikaze

Japanese Destroyer Yukikaze

Yukikaze (雪風?, "Snowy Wind") was a Kagero-class destroyer in service with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She was the only member of her class to survive the war. The attrition rate of Japanese destroyers was extremely high due to heavy, prolonged combat and the need to use them to transport supplies to scattered Japanese island garrisons.

Early in the war she took part in the invasions of the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. She participated in the battles of Midway, Santa Cruz, Leyte Gulf, and the Philippine Sea, as well as a lengthy stint on Guadalcanal troop runs and the naval battles around that island. Yukikaze also survived Operation Ten-Go, the abortive attack on the American force landing on Okinawa, during which the Yamato was sunk. Between these major engagements, Yukikaze participated in escort duty for ships in transit, particularly in the redeployment of Shinano during which the newly completed carrier was torpedoed by a USN submarine and sunk. She spent the last months of the war on security duty in Japanese harbors and survived many Allied air raids.

As a result of participating and surviving some of the most dangerous battles the IJN had fought, Yukikaze is very popular in Japan, being called "the unsinkable ship" and "the miracle ship" much like Shigure prior to that ship's sinking by USS Blackfin (SS-322). But some others within the IJN regarded the ship as a bad omen because ships the destroyer was tasked to escort tended to be sunk with heavy casualties.

After the war, she was used as a transport to bring home Japanese military forces still abroad. Yukikaze and Hibiki were the only ships to survive among the 82 Japanese destroyers built before the war.