Destroyer Suzutsuki

Suzutsuki (涼月) was the third ship of the Akizuki-class anti-aircraft destroyers, laid down at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki on 15 March 1941, launched on 4 March 1942, and commissioned on 29 December 1942.

Like her sister ships, Suzutsuki was equipped with eight 10 cm/65 Type 98 dual-purpose guns for fleet air defense. Her career was repeatedly interrupted by torpedo damage. In January 1944, during a transport run toward Wake Island, the submarine USS Sturgeon hit her with two torpedoes that destroyed both her bow and her stern and killed about 130 men; repairs at Kure lasted until August. On 16 October 1944 she was torpedoed again, by USS Besugo, and returned to Kure once more. As a result she missed both the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Suzutsuki is most famous for her role in Operation Ten-Go on 7 April 1945, the final sortie of the battleship Yamato. As part of the Second Fleet's escort force, Suzutsuki was attacked by waves of American carrier aircraft in the East China Sea. A bomb struck forward and wrecked her bow, causing severe flooding and leaving 57 dead and 34 wounded.

Despite the catastrophic damage, her crew managed to keep the ship afloat. Unable to steam forward, Suzutsuki's crew performed the extraordinary feat of reversing the ship all the way back to Sasebo. This remarkable act of seamanship earned her the nickname "miracle ship" (奇蹟の艦). She survived the war, and from 1948 her hull, together with those of the destroyers Fuyutsuki and Yanagi, was used as a breakwater at Wakamatsu port in Kitakyushu, where the hulls now lie buried under later harbor works.