IJN Yukikaze (雪風) carries a name that means snow wind. Sasebo Naval Arsenal launched her on 24 March 1939, and she was commissioned on 20 January 1940. She was a Kagero-class destroyer: six 5-inch guns in twin mounts, eight tubes for the oxygen torpedo, and a hull built to run with the fleet. The class is usually counted as nineteen ships, Akigumo included.
On 13 November 1942 she was in Rear Admiral Hiroaki Abe's screen off Guadalcanal. Hiei and Kirishima were in that night action, and so was the light cruiser Nagara. Near Savo Island the Japanese column ran into Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan's line in the dark. Ships were lost on both sides. Hiei was disabled and sunk later that day. None of those losses is credited to Yukikaze. She came through the night.
In the first days of March 1943 she was on a different kind of run. Eight transports and eight destroyers left Rabaul for Lae, across the Bismarck Sea. Shirayuki wore Kimura's flag. Allied aircraft, American and Australian, found them. The aircraft sank every transport and four of the destroyers: Shirayuki, Arashio, Asashio, and Tokitsukaze. The sinkings were by aircraft. They are not credited to one plane. No Allied warship was in the daylight fight. Eight motor torpedo boats came in after dark and attacked what was left. They do not get those sinkings either.
Yukikaze was one of the four destroyers that got away: Yukikaze, Asagumo, Shikinami, and Uranami. They took survivors with them. She is not credited with a sinking there.
On 25 October 1944 she was in the screen of Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's center force when it ran into the escort carriers off Samar. She was not sunk. The ships lost to the Japanese guns that morning are not credited to her.
On 7 April 1945 she was one of the destroyers with the battleship Yamato, on the sortie toward Okinawa. American carrier aircraft sank Yamato and several of the escorts. Asashimo, Hamakaze, and Isokaze were lost to that air attack. Yukikaze was not sunk, and she got back. She did not sink those three.
She was the only Kagero still afloat at the end of the war. On 6 July 1947 she was turned over to the Republic of China at Shanghai and renamed Tan Yang (丹陽). She was scrapped in 1970.
