Yugiri (夕霧) means evening mist. She was a Fubuki-class destroyer, the fourteenth of the class and the fourth of the improved ships, the ones whose 5-inch turrets could elevate to 75 degrees and fire at aircraft. Maizuru Naval Arsenal laid her down on 1 April 1929 as Destroyer No. 48. She was named before she was launched, on 12 May 1930, and she commissioned on 3 December 1930. The photograph of 29 November is the bow she carried then. On 26 September 1935, in the typhoon later called the Fourth Fleet Incident, the sea tore that bow off. She was given a new one, and the class was strengthened.
She opened the war in Destroyer Division 20 with Sagiri, Asagiri, and Amagiri, in Destroyer Squadron 3. Commander Masayoshi Motokura had her. Captain Yuji Yamada flew the division flag in her. He was not her captain. From late November 1941 she ran troop convoys out of Samah and Cam Ranh for the Malaya landings. On 19 December, Division 20 helped sink the Dutch submarine O-20. The sinking is not hers alone. On 27 January 1942, off Endau, she was in the gun line with Sendai, Asagiri, Fubuki, Shirayuki, and Amagiri that finished the British destroyer Thanet. She did not sink Thanet by herself.
Through February and March she covered the landings at Bangka and Palembang, swept for mines off Singapore and Johore, and went on to northern Sumatra and the Andamans. On 6 April, in the Indian Ocean, she escorted Chokai, Yura, and Ryujo. The destroyers helped sink six merchant ships. Ryujo's aircraft sank two more and heavily damaged one. Those aircraft kills are not hers. She was back at Kure, and in dock, by 22 April.
At Midway she did not fight the carriers. On 4 and 5 June she escorted Admiral Takasu's Aleutians Guard Force and stayed with it. In July a raid into the Indian Ocean was called off because of Guadalcanal. She reached Truk on 23 August 1942 and left the next day with a troop convoy for the island.
On 28 August, about sixty miles north-northeast of Savo, dive bombers caught the division. The run was broken off and the troops were transferred at sea. A bomb hit Yugiri near the bridge. Thirty-two men were killed, Captain Yamada among them, and forty were injured. Asagiri was sunk. Shirakumo had to be towed. Yugiri reached the Shortlands on 30 August. The next day she carried Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka from the Shortlands to Truk. He commanded Destroyer Squadron 2. He was a passenger, not her captain. Motokura left her on 3 September for Tokitsukaze. Lieutenant Commander Nisaburo Maekawa, who had had Asagiri, took her.
Division 20 was stood down on 1 October, and she went to Kure under repair, arriving on 6 October. While she was there a twin 13 mm mount, later changed to 25 mm, was fitted forward of the bridge. On 25 January 1943 she was assigned to the Eighth Fleet and sent toward Rabaul. On 25 February she joined Destroyer Division 11 with Shirayuki, Hatsuyuki, and Amagiri. Through April and May she ran troops to Rekata and Buka.
On 16 May 1943, on an anti-submarine sweep out of Rabaul, one torpedo from Grayback hit her northwest of Kavieng, near Mussau. The whole forepart in front of the bridge was smashed, and the forecastle hung just forward of No. 1 turret. Grayback's patrol report claimed two hits and saw her stopped, listing, and later burning while she made a few knots. The second explosion was a premature short. Nine men were killed. She was dead in the water. Amagiri towed her into Rabaul on 18 May, and she went alongside Yamabiko Maru for emergency repairs. From 24 July she went on to Yokosuka, and on 7 August she entered Kure. More twin 25 mm guns went on abreast the after funnel, and a Type 22 radar went on the foremast. The after turret stayed. Maekawa left her on 25 October for Asashimo. Lieutenant Commander Shuichi Otsuji, who had had Asanagi, took her.
In November she went south again with Akikaze, carrying aircrew and airfield stores, and reached Rabaul on 18 November. On 21 November she ran to Buka with Onami, Makinami, Amagiri, and Uzuki, put 875 troops ashore, and took 655 off. On the night of 24 November she was on another Buka run, in the transport group with Amagiri and Uzuki. Onami and Makinami were the screen.
Off Cape St. George, about fifty miles east of the cape, near 04°44′ S, 154°00′ E, the screen went first. Onami blew up under the opening torpedoes. Spence and Converse finished Makinami. Charles Ausburne, Claxton, and Dyson went after the transports and sank Yugiri by gunfire. The sinking is not pinned to one of them. One shell that did not explode hit Uzuki, and she got clear. Nothing reached Amagiri. Otsuji was killed. I-177 picked up 278 of her men. I-181 picked up 11. She was struck from the Navy list on 15 December 1943.