Yūgumo

History: Yūgumo (夕雲, "Evening Clouds") was the lead ship of her class of destroyer built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Yūgumo participated in the battles of Midway, the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz Islands. The destroyer made troop transport runs to Guadalcanal 7 and 10 November 1942. She then made troop transport run to Buna, Papua New Guinea on 17 and 22 November. The ship then performed troop evacuation runs to Guadalcanal on 1 and 4 February 1943. 3 days later, Yūgumo took part in a troop evacuation run to the Russell Islands. The destroyer made Troop transport runs to Kolombangara on 1 and 5 April.

On 29 July, Yūgumo evacuated 479 soldiers from Kiska. She performed a troop evacuation run to Kolombangara 2 October 1943. On the night of 6–7 October 1943, Yūgumo was on a troop evacuation run to Vella Lavella. In the Battle of Vella Lavella, she charged U.S. destroyers, irreparably damaging USS Chevalier with a torpedo. She was sunk in turn by gunfire and at least one torpedo from Chevalier and USS Selfridge, 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Vella Lavella (07°33′S 156°14′ECoordinates: 07°33′S 156°14′E), with 138 killed. U.S. PT boats rescued 78 survivors and another 25 reached friendly lines in an abandoned U.S. lifeboat, but Commander Osako was killed in action.

Class: The Yūgumo-class destroyers (夕雲型駆逐艦 Yūgumo-gata kuchikukan) were a group of 19 destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. The IJN called them Destroyer Type-A (甲型駆逐艦, Kō-gata Kuchikukan) from their plan name. No ships of the class survived the war.

Nationality: Japan is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean with dense cities, imperial palaces, mountainous national parks and thousands of shrines and temples. Shinkansen bullet trains connect the main islands of Kyushu (with Okinawa's subtropical beaches), Honshu (home to Tokyo and Hiroshima’s atomic-bomb memorial) and Hokkaido (famous for skiing). Tokyo, the capital, is known for skyscrapers, shopping and pop culture.

Although legend has it that Japan was founded in 660BC, archaeologists agree that settlement in the Japanese archpelago dates back as far as 100,000 years. The Jomon Period (8000-c.300BC) is the earliest that has been studied. It is named after the 'jomon' or cord-marked pattern style of pottery of the period.