None of the earliest Japanese destroyer classes survived in Japanese service into the Second World War. Many ships built during the First World War also disappeared in the early and mid-1930s, whereas Britain and the United States retained comparable older vessels. Their retirement is questioned in light of Japan's fuel-supply difficulties: these ships burned coal and still offered possible secondary uses. Earlier anti-submarine experience suggests that they could have helped escort convoys. The argument concerns useful roles lost with the old hulls, without establishing why each class was discarded.
Notable Point · 1:07:06-1:08:36
Why Japan's early destroyers vanished before the Second World War
Unlike many British and American contemporaries, most early Japanese destroyers were discarded in the 1930s despite their potential value for escort and anti-submarine duties.