Amatsukaze was a Kagero-class destroyer. Maizuru Naval Arsenal launched her on 19 October 1939, and she was commissioned on 26 October 1940. Tameichi Hara was her captain from 15 September 1940. The photograph shows her under air attack in 1945. The picture below shows her underway on 17 October 1940, just before she was commissioned.
On 27 February 1942 she was in Destroyer Division 16 with Jintsu, Yukikaze, Tokitsukaze, and Hatsukaze. A near miss is said to have damaged her hull. She was not sunk. Hara still had her.
On the night of 1 March 1942 she and Hatsukaze found the submarine Perch on the surface, north of Surabaya. They depth-charged her and left her crippled. They did not sink her. On the morning of 3 March Perch could not dive. Ushio fired, Perch's own crew scuttled her, and Ushio took all 59 men off. Six died later as prisoners. The loss is not pinned to Amatsukaze.
On the night of 3 March Hara saw a man light a cigarette on another surfaced submarine, about 4,000 meters off. Amatsukaze closed. The submarine fired two torpedoes, which missed, and gunfire hit her. Hara believed she went down. That boat was not Perch. Perch was already on the bottom. No Allied submarine is recorded as lost that night. The submarine has not been identified.
On 13 November 1942 Helena's 6-inch guns hit Amatsukaze off Guadalcanal. The hits disabled her guns, and the steering was out. The rudder was worked by hand at the stern. Hara steered her that way for hundreds of miles, and she made Truk. She was not sunk. That was the night action off Guadalcanal, not the Battle of Tassafaronga. Hara later commanded Destroyer Division 27. He was not Shigure's captain.
In January 1944, north of the Spratly Islands, the submarine Redfin torpedoed her. The hit blew off her bow. Eighty men were killed. She did not sink. She was towed in, a temporary bow was fitted at Singapore, and she went back to sea. On 6 April 1945 Army bombers wrecked her south of Amoy. She ran aground. She was finished.
