Yaeyama was a minelayer, built at Kure. She was laid down on 2 August 1930, launched on 13 October 1931, and commissioned on 31 August 1932. She was the first Japanese warship with an all-welded hull. She laid mines, and she also carried nets. Her standard displacement was 1,135 tons.
Before the Pacific War she worked the China coast. Ichiro Aitoku had her from 15 October 1939 to 20 July 1940. That duty was not a battle.
In the Philippines she went on as a minelayer. Off Subic Bay on 1 February 1942 a motor torpedo boat attacked her. She was not sunk. Later accounts do not agree on whether anything hit her that day.
In December 1943 she was refitted at Cavite as an anti-submarine escort. The mine rails came off, and she took thirty-six depth charges. In January 1944 she escorted a convoy from Manila toward Singapore. In May she escorted another from Manila toward Halmahera.
On 24 September 1944, south of Mindoro, in the Calamian Islands, carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 sank her. The place was about 12°15'N, 121°00'E. The strike is not credited to one carrier. Her captain survived. She was struck from the Navy List on 10 November 1944.
The photograph on her ship page was taken at Shanghai in April 1937. It is a halftone from the files of the Office of Naval Intelligence. The smaller picture below is from her trials off Iwakura on 13 July 1932.
