Japanese destroyer Nokaze
was the lead ship of the Nokaze sub-class, an improvement to the 1st class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy following World War I. Advanced for their time, these ships served as first-line destroyers through the 1930s, but were considered obsolescent by the start of the Pacific War. History Construction of the large-sized Minekaze-class destroyers was authorized as part of the Imperial Japanese Navy's 8-4 Fleet Program from fiscal 1917 with nine vessels, and fiscal 1918 with an additional six vessels. However, the final three vessels in the fiscal 1918 were built to a different design and have a different enough silhouette that many authors consider them to be a separate class. Nokaze, built at the Maizuru Naval Arsenal was laid down on 16 April 1921, launched on 1 October 1921 and commissioned on 31 March 1922. On completion, Nokaze was teamed with sister ships , , and flagship at Yokosuka Naval District to form Destroyer Division 1. In 1938-1939, this Division was assigned to patrols of the northern and central China coastlines in support of Japanese combat operations in the Second Sino-Japanese War World War II history At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Nokaze was