[1] SHIGURE has some considerable renown as the destroyer made famous by Captain Hara Tameichi relating her exploits at Guadalcanal and the Solomons while under his command in the classic "Japanese Destroyer Captain." The SHIGURE in fact, continued to have a remarkable career after Captain Hara left at the end of 1943: in 1944 SHIGURE was present at the great raid on Truk, the Battle of Marianas when HIYO was sunk, and perhaps most remarkable of all, was the only survivor of Nishimura's `Force C' at the Battle of Surigao Strait. Even that was not quite all yet; before 1944 was out, SHIGURE escorted the brand-new fleet carrier UNRYU and witnessed the her tragic explosive destruction by submarine attack en-route to Manila.

Now at the start of 1945 SHIGURE was given what proved to be her final assignment. When YUKIKAZE had a main steam pipe failure, SHIGURE was assigned to take her place escorting the big and important convoy HI-87 south to Singapore. Among them going as far as Takao, Formosa was the carrier RYUHO making what was the last ocean voyage of a Japanese carrier. En-route south, at stopovers at both Takao and Hong Kong HI-87 was attacked by carrier planes. Each time SHIGURE contributed her share of anti-aircraft defense and received no damage. However by the time the Hong Kong raid was over on January 16th, HI-87 had only one Maru left, the large valuable tanker SARAWAK MARU.

Undaunted, the Japanese resolved to proceed to Singapore as planned. The fuel and cargo even one large tanker could bring back to the homeland was judged sufficiently needed to justify the risk. The next day HI-87 departed Hong Kong for Singapore. They weaved their way to Saigon, then thence to the tip of Indo-China. From here it was one last dash south to reach Malaya. This serpentine course had been taken just to avoid attack, and thus far had succeeded. But at 0701 on January 24, 1945 when the small convoy was off Malaya and nearing their destination SHIGURE raised the alarm. She had sighted a submarine and turned to attack. The submarine was USS BLACKFIN (SS- 322) and the destroyer's action provoked the submarine to attack SHIGURE instead of the tanker with four torpedoes. Despite a hard right turn, one or two of the torpedoes hit SHIGURE in the port quarter at 0705. The No.2 magazine exploded and free-surface flooding caused her to lurch to starboard. Luck having deserted her, SHIGURE had continued to complete a 360 degree loop when at 0715 her bow jerked out of the water and she went to the bottom.

Such was the end of one of the two most famous destroyers in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The account is included here because supposedly SHIGURE's wreck has been found but heavily scavanged or deteriorated. It may be that the Action Report remains as giving the better picture of her sinking and the wreck must be informed by it, rather than the usual reverse of a wreck requiring adjusting the record.