Born Too Little, Too Late: The I.J.N.’s SAKAWA
By Anthony P. Tully @April 1998
With her sister-ships AGANO, NOSHIRO, and the famous YAHAGI, the SAKAWA began life as a design intended to be a new light cruiser armed with 6-inch guns and high speed designed to replace the old four and three stack light cruisers in commission.
Finally it was decided to redesign the vessels and complete them as high speed scouting cruisers designed to serve as Destroyer Squadron flagships or screen flags for striking forces.
The emphasis on speed resulted in comparatively light armoring, even around the turrets, machinery and ammunition rooms.
As completed the AGANO-class with three twin turrets with two 5.9-inch guns each. Two of the turrets were situated forward of the bridge, the third on the quarterdeck abaft the mainmast. Two quadruple 24-inch torpedo tubes were installed, complete with the rapid reloading gear that made IJN torpedoes among the most effective in the world. Sixteen torpedo spares were carried, and these tubes were partly concealed and protected by a light aircraft deck built over them, which could handle two aircraft. The crane and winch for handling the aircraft was built into the mainmast aft, and swung forward. Finally, the cruisers carried sixteen depth charges. By the time SAKAWA entered service, she carried the same number of light A.A. as the final complement on her sisters – ten triple and twenty-nine single mount 25mm guns. The designed complement was 730 officers and men, but staffs and increased anti-aircraft armament pushed this number higher. Thus at Leyte Gulf the NOSHIRO’s complement was 60 officers and 688 petty officers and men for a total of 748 officers and men.
As it happened, in service the AGANOs proved to be somewhat unlucky; especially the name ship of the class. The AGANO entered service at the end of October 1942 but did not reach the war zone at Truk till early December to assume command of DesRon 10. Hereafter, she served Combined Fleet competently but ingloriously, taking part in various landing and support missions. Not until November 1943 did she get to participate in a surface battle, the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay. She achieved little in that action, but also suffered no damage. However, not many days after returning to Rabaul, on 11 November she had her stern shattered by an airel torpedo dropped by attacking planes from USS SARATOGA and PRINCETON. With speed reduced, the AGANO departed Rabaul with a destroyer but her attempt to escape Truk was foiled by a torpedo hit from USS SKATE that stopped her dead; forcing sister NOSHIRO to tow her the rest of the way to Truk. There emergency repairs were carried out, but proceeded slowly. Finally, on 15 February 1944 the AGANO departed Truk as part of the ongoing rush to evacuate that base before the imminent and expected U.S. carrier raids struck. However, once again a submarine barred her escape from a beseiged base, and this time the encounter was fatal. USS SKATE hit AGANO with two torpedoes at sunset of the 16th, and burning and flooding, she finally went down after midnight. To add to her ill-fortune, the destroyer carrying her Captain and survivors, the OITE, returned to Truk, only to be caught in the great TF 58 carrier raid on that base on 18 February. OITE was blown in half by a torpedo and sunk, with only some twenty survivors of hers and AGANO’s crews aboard.
Sister ships Noshiro and Yahagi were only slightly more fortunate. After surviving numerous skirmishes including the great Battle of the Marianas (Battle of the Philippine Sea) the NOSHIRO sailed with YAHAGI as part of Kurita’s 1st Diversion Attack Force in its epic charge on Leyte Gulf in October 1944. She and her sister played an embarrassingly low-key role in the surface battle of Samar, leading their destroyer squadrons with little enthusiasm. After Kurita’s controversial turn-about, the NOSHIRO suffered the ignominy of being caught and stopped dead by a single aerial torpedo that managed to knock out all boiler rooms with shock and flooding. A second torpedo from TF 38’s torpedo planes finished her off an hour before noon on 26 October, the day after Kurita escaped back through the San Bernardino Strait.
The SAKAWA herself entered service on 24 November 1944. She was thus a month too late to join in the Imperial Japanese Navy’s last hurrah at Leyte Gulf. Symbolically, the very day SAKAWA was commissioned, Vice-Admiral Kurita and the remnants of 1st Striking Force - including YAMATO and NAGATO – returned to Kure after having lost battleship KONGO to a submarine on the voyage home.
SAKAWA departed her birth-place of Sasebo on 7 December 1944 for Kure, arriving later that day to to join the ranks of Destroyer Squadron 11.
On 18 March 1945 the great superbattleship YAMATO and the surviving destroyers of DesRon 2 received orders to prepare for a diversionary sortie off Kyushu to lure the Allied aircraft carrier forces converging for the invasion of Okinawa. As the days past, an increasing flurry of orders and counter-orders led to drastic revision of the mission. On 29 March the Allies began landing on the islands adjacent to Okinawa, and as a result, on 1 April the SAKAWA and DesRon 11 were reassigned to join the YAMATO’s Second Fleet. SAKAWA flew the flag of ComDesRon 11 and had under her destroyers YOIZUKI, NIRE, TSUTA, HAGI, KAKI, SHII, NASHI, SUMIRE, ENOKI, and NATSUZUKI. Most of these were of the new and efficient MATSU-class, while the NATSUZUKI was one of the large AKIZUKI-class Anti-aircraft destroyers, commanded by the former skipper of the famous SHIGURE, Commander Nishino Shigeru.
Deprived by the lack of fuel from this one final opportunity to prove herself, the SAKAWA could only sit at Kure while YAMATO and her sister YAHAGI steamed to their storied but futile destruction off Okinawa on 7 April. Second Fleet itself was abolished on 20 April, and SAKAWA and DesRon 11 was with other sad remnants reassigned to Combined Fleet.
Other surviving units of the Imperial Navy, including battleships and aircraft carriers, were immobolized at Kure due to lack of fuel. They had consquently been berthed and camouflaged in semi-permanent moorings to await the expected onslaught of U.S. carrier raids. The SAKAWA and DesRon 11, however, were still expected to play an important role in the final defense of the homeland. It was thus necessary to transfer to a safer harbor, and thus on 17 July 1945 the SAKAWA departed Kure for Maizuru Naval Station. She arrived two days later, joining destroyers YUKIKAZE and HATSUSHIMO which had already arrived at Maizuru from Sasebo on May 17.
It was here at Maizuru that SAKAWA received her baptism of fire. At 0630 30 July 1945 Allied carrier aircraft swarmed in over the base. Though bombs dropped around, the SAKAWA herself escaped unscathed. However, the bridge of the submarine tender CHOGEI was flattened by a bomb, while both YUKIKAZE and HATSUSHIMO were hit while maneuvering at high speed inside nearby Miyazu Bay. The ever-lucky YUKIKAZE got off lightly, but HATSUSHIMO also struck a mine, and was hastily run ashore with bow rearing out of the water, the last Japanese destroyer to be sunk in the war. With this raid the SAKAWA had survived her moment of greatest risk. The end of the war was now at hand.
The SAKAWA was still at Maizuru when surrendered with the rest of the nation on 15 August 1945. Later, after removal of her guns, radar and aircraft catapults, she was assigned to the repatriation service implemented to ship far-flung Japanese garrisons and soldiers back to the homeland. In concert with ships ranging in size from new aircraft carrier KATSURAGI and escort-destroyer TAKE, the SAKAWA performed this melancholy service without incident until 25 February 1946. On that date she was handed over to the U.S. Navy after arriving in Yokosuka.
The next month SAKAWA was prepared for a long and final voyage. Ironically, this voyage would be spent in company with another Japanese ship, none other than the one-time flagship of Combined Fleet, battleship NAGATO. For NAGATO and SAKAWA had been selected to serve as guinea pigs in the elaborate and controversial seaborne atomic test dubbed "Operation Crossroads" that would take place at Bikini Atoll, in the Marshalls. There, as part of a huge test fleet of both Allied and former-Axis vessels, the two IJN refugees would be subjected to the power of the atom. NAGATO's final skipper for this voyage was Captain W.J. Whipple, while Captain H.L. Stone had the SAKAWA. Upon arriving at Bikini, all target vessels would be placed in Task Group 1.2 under the overall command of Radm F.G. Fahrion. The NAGATO and SAKAWA formed part of Task Unit 1.2.1 commanded by Captain W. Deweese. These two set out from Yokosuka for Bikini in March, and the melancholy voyage provided the most dramatic moment in SAKAWA’s breif life.
The SAKAWA’s prize crew found the ship
crowded and unsanitary, and suffered from low morale. Although the
NAGATO also was considered
"black and filthy" by her prize crew, they at least did find one
attraction of her furnishings that was pleasant. This was the NAGATO's
large Japanese-style hot tub bath, which several men enjoyed to the fullest.
The SAKAWA crew had no such luxury, and late that month, when not far from Eniwetok, the SAKAWA suffered engine difficulties at sea, and became adrift for days while NAGATO stood by. Once towed in and
making layover at Eniwetok, rather than resume the voyage a group of frustrated
and angry sailors among Captain Stone's crew sabotaged the cruiser. The details are unclear but resulted in courts-martial, and
a delay of four days. In any case, the sullen voyage was
resumed, and on 29 April 1946 the NAGATO and SAKAWA staggered into Bikini
atoll.
Once at Bikini preparations began at once
for the forthcoming test. The SAKAWA was
moored among sixty-nine other target ships on the `lagoon side’ of Bikini
Island. Apart from the famous ex-German
heavy cruiser PRINZ EUGEN, most of these targets were her former enemies---all
now united together to face the greatest test of their lives. The date
for `Test Able' was set for 1 July, 1946.
That morning, after a delay due to uncertain weather, the bomb
(nicknamed "Gilda") had left Kwajalein aboard the Dave's Dream,
the B-29 bomber that would drop the weapon.
Flying northwesterly the big
plane climbed and droned onward till just after 0800 it arrived over Bikini
Atoll and the massed guinea pig fleet.
Aiming point was none other than the
veteran battleship NEVADA, whose breathtaking sortie during the attack
on Pearl Harbor had stirred the imaginations of all present. She was painted an ungainly red and orange,
to aid the bombardier. Keeping her close
company, the great NAGATO rode off NEVADA's starboard bow. The former enemies would face the wrath of
the atom together. SAKAWA was placed off NEVADA'S port quarter. Two blast guages to
measure the blast were placed: one on the forecastle and the other atop No.2 turret
of the light cruiser.
At precisely thirty-four seconds after
0900 the moment came. The 21 kiloton
bomb detonated at 500 feet above sea level and from the detonation center, a
spherical shock wave spread outward at about 3 miles per second, striking the
water before one second has passed.
However, in the midst of all this avante-garde
and cutting-edge technological brilliance, human and mechanical error still
remained. Poor NEVADA had been
the bulls-eye with NAGATO closeby to share her
fate---but the bomb missed! Instead of
detonating directly over the NEVADA as the test required, the bomb
exploded 1,800 feet to the west of the Pearl Harbor veteran, almost over the
light carrier INDEPENDENCE. The
carrier's flight deck was destroyed, the stern chewed up, and the island
smashed. Six hours after the test she
was still ablaze, looking rather like her ill-fated sister PRINCETON had
when she went down off Leyte two years before.
As for NAGATO, the bomb exploded
1,000 yards off her port quarter. She
merely suffered "insignificant damage" to her superstructure, some
shock damage to the (already inoperable) main turrets, and some leaking valves
were sprung. The main battery
rangefinder on the foremast was disloged and
communications partly disrupted. That
was all. Companion NEVADA was in
about the same shape, except the superstructure damage was severe and the
funnel crushed.
The German PRINZ EUGEN
who had survived the sortie of the BISMARCK
and the last desperate days in the Baltic evacuations also shrugged off the
bomb's blow with haughty disdain. Only
the mainmast snapped. It was quite
another matter regarding the unfortunate SAKAWA. As the Americans re-entered the lagoon five
and a half hours after detonation, even they were shocked and saddened to see
what the the once handsome cruiser had been
transformed into by the malignant power of the bomb. Approaching the SAKAWA
at 1700 that afternoon, they found her little more than a floating junkyard,
scarcely recognizable as a ship.
The pressure wave from `Able' had slammed
into the thin-skinned ship from only 490 yards astern, just off the starboard
quarter. The result was that while
forward of the bridge the bow and fore turrets were mostly intact, the entirety
of the remainder of the superstructure aft had been mowed down, blasted almost
flat. Though the bridge structure still
stood, the foremast was buckled, and the large slanting stack simply flattened,
squashed against the bridge, as was everything else. Deckhouses, winches and boats were all gone
or twisted into unidentifiable heaps of welded scrap. The mainmast had toppled forward and hung
over the port side, the aircraft crane smashed beside it. The only recognizable feature was the rear
6inch turret, whose form alone defied the blast. A blazing fire raged aft from the mainmast to
the fantail for some two hours after the blast, never quite dying out.
The fantail itself was ripped apart and
open to the sea, and the SAKAWA was down about
two feet by the stern. Even so, she showed
only a slight port list, though riding deep in the water, and did not seem to
be settling much further. During the
night however, that picture changed. Come dawn of 2nd of August, the SAKAWA was seen to have settled aft till her main
deck was not even a foot above the water, and the list to port had increased to
8 degrees. It was clear she was
foundering, and so an attempt was made "despite the fact that the ship was
still radiologically dangerous" to tow her into
shallow water.
So at 0906 the ACHOMAWI
went alongside and secured a tow line to the ex-Japanese cruiser. The ACHOMAWI
promptly started to tow the SAKAWA astern to
clear the array of targets, but it was already too late. By 1000 hours the main deck was awash
amidships on her port side, and the SAKAWA
clearly of a mind to drag her would-be salver with her. The light cruiser had only been moved 150
feet when the Achomawi hastily cast loose her
tow line and moved away.
At 1033 the SAKAWA
gave a sharp lurch to port, and her mangled stern slipped under the calm
waves. She heeled further and further,
while the submerged stern swung down till it nudged the atoll's bottom. She paused then, for a few minutes, with a
list of 85 degrees, submerged to the amidships, with her rakish bow reared
skyward. Then, with a steady gurgling of
escaping air, the bow lowered in submission to the sea, and at 1042 the unhappy
cruiser vanished from sight.
Close abeam to port the battleship ARKANSAS
floated on a mocking even keel, only the broken masts showing the effects of
the blast. To starboard, beyond NEVADA,
the hulking NAGATO bore silent witness to her comrade's departure. Twenty-five and a half hours had passed since
the atomic bomb's detonation. (The
NAGATO’s own turn came after the underwater `Test Baker’ on 25 July tore a rent in her
hull under the mainmast so that she capsized and sank the night of 29/30 July
1946.) Today, the SAKAWA rests today on the bottom on an
even-keel, having righted herself in her descent to the atoll floor.
SAKAWA had been born too late to even try to assist
her nation, unable even to participate in the final settee that was the YAMATO's
last sortie for reasons of fuel and training.
All of the AGANO-class, despite
high expectations, had proven remarkably ill-fortuned. AGANO
herself had been twice damaged at Rabaul when brand-new, moved to Truk, only to
be gratuitously sunk by USS SKATE as she sought to escape the air raid
there. NOSHIRO
had been rather ignominiously knocked out in short order during the retreat
from Leyte, and finally YAHAGI had failed to achieve results during her
great chance off Samar, before perishing in the holocaust of Ten-Ichi-Go and YAMATO's sacrifice. A classic fulfillment of the adage: “men
propose, the gods dispose.”
Note:
As recently as 1992 the SAKAWA's wreck had not been relocated or positively identified, but has since been found. The way she ended up is interesting, having apparently corrected as she settled. Despite the angle at which she sank, the SAKAWA in her final resting place is almost upright. She is buried in the sand with a perhaps 15-20 degree list to port, with the starboard side exposed but the port main deck rail buried abaft the forecastle. The bridge and superstructure has clearly been further flattened by the blast of "Baker" Bomb after she was already on the bottom. The forward turrets are still in place but almost nothing is left abaft of the bridge and a ruined segment of conning tower. In fact, the highest point now on the wreck is ironically one of the "Christmas Tree" monitors still on "B" turret. What remains of the bridge lays smashed on its side into the mud off the port side, apparently destroyed during the "Baker" blast, for it was intact when she sank. Aft of this point, little is left, which accords with the last views of her before she sank.
