Ships
- IJN Yubari Captain from 3 May 1943
Captain Morie Funaki took command of the Imperial Japanese Navy light cruiser Yubari on 3 May 1943. The Pacific War had settled into a close struggle for the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, and cruisers working from Rabaul spent their time escorting convoys and moving troops between garrisons that were under growing pressure.
Yubari was an unusual ship to inherit. Completed in 1923 as a trial of ideas from the designer Yuzuru Hiraga, she carried a cruiser’s guns and torpedoes on a short, tightly packed hull and was built for high speed. The same approach later shaped larger Japanese cruisers. She had already been in hard action. In December 1941 she covered the attempt to seize Wake Island and was struck by shore batteries when the first landing failed. Later refits added anti-aircraft guns and suited her to escort work.
Funaki came aboard as the central Solomons flared again. American troops landed on New Georgia at the end of June 1943, and Japanese ships from Rabaul and the Shortland Islands answered with night runs of reinforcements toward Kolombangara and the nearby posts. Yubari took part in that traffic. With Funaki in command that summer, American aircraft damaged her, and she was sent back to Japan for repairs.
The yard period kept her out of the later fighting in the Solomons. She returned to duty as Japan drew in on the Marianas, the Carolines, and Palau, and a cruiser of her size was given escort and transport work along that line. On 27 April 1944, off Palau, the United States submarine Bluegill torpedoed Yubari. The cruiser sank on 28 April, and ships in company recovered the survivors.
Command of Yubari also rested at other times with Yasuji Hirai, Ranji Oe, Takeo Nara, and Masami Ban. Funaki’s tour opened on 3 May 1943, during the cruiser’s last year at sea.