Yamakaze was a Shiratsuyu-class destroyer. The name is the mountain wind. Lieutenant Commander Shuichi Hamanaka had her by December 1941, and he was still her captain in the Java Sea.
On 27 February 1942 she was in Destroyer Division 7 with Ushio, Sazanami, and Kawakaze. One account puts that division with the heavy cruisers Nachi and Haguro. Another puts it with Jintsu. She was not sunk that day.
On 1 March she was in the second action, the one that sank Encounter after Exeter. That loss is not credited to Yamakaze alone.
On 25 June 1942 the submarine Nautilus hit her with two torpedoes, about sixty miles southeast of Yokosuka. She broke up and sank. Hamanaka and everyone aboard were lost.