「波風」→「瀋陽」 The Prize of War

After the Japanese surrender in Aug 1945, what's left of the IJN warships were handed over to 4 victor-nations: USA, USSR, UK, and the Republic of China. A number of them were actually re-commissioned. Thanks to Mr Hirokawa, a complete list, from his Tansui blog, of those served in the ROC Navy is shown here - the first brackets contain the original IJN and the second, the new ROC navy name of the ships - with parts in blue added by Eyedoc:

Destroyers［駆逐艦］:

「波風」→「瀋陽」 As the first example, the history of the transformation of 「波風」→「瀋陽」 is described below:

Destroyer 波風Namikaze [above: 1,234 tons] was built in 1922 at the Maizuru Naval Shipyard (舞鶴海軍工廠). Its duties involved principally the patrol of northern waters of Japan until Dec 1943 when Namikaze was reassigned to escort convoys to French Indochina but returned to the northern waters patrol duty in Mar 1944.

On Aug 21, 1944, Namikaze was torpedoed by USS Seal (SS-183) but survived. It was repaired and rebuilt into a carrier for 回天Kaiten (manned torpedoes - pocket submarines loaded with high explosives) and joined the Combined IJN Fleet. There was no report of the Kaitens' being deployed, however. It was decommissioned on Oct 5, 1945. And on Oct 3, 1947, the ship was turned over to the ROC as a prize of war. It was re-named 瀋陽Shenyang, originally based in Tsingtao, later moved to Taiwan to continue service until 1960, when it was finally scrapped.

「雪風」→「丹陽」 [雪風Yukikaze, below, built in 1940, nicknamed Lucky/Miracle ship because it had fought in 16 major battles in the Pacific War and yet suffered no damages. Detractors, however, pointed out that the ships that she escorted had all been sunk. Renamed 丹陽Danyang and served in the ROC Navy, it carried Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Sek from Shanghai to Taiwan in 1949. It later engaged in a sea battle with 2 PRC cruisers sinking one and damaging the other. It was decommissioned in 1965, dismantled in 1971 with the steering wheel and the rudder returned to Japan as museum pieces.]


「宵月」→「汾陽」 [宵月Yoizuki, below, was built in Jan 1945, too late to join in any battles. In Mar 1946, it arrived in Sydney, Australia to pick up 1,005 Japanese POWs. Among them were 350 Taiwanese internees who refused to crowd into such a tiny ship and demanded a larger one that befitted the new status of citizens of a victor-nation (i.e., the ROC). This was not accommodated and the Hell-ship sailed on to New Guinea where the Taiwanese re-boarded a larger hospital ship before returning home. The ship was handed over to the ROC in Aug 1947 and re-named 汾陽Fenyang. However, because of lack of manpower in restoring and operating the ship, it was sitting idle in Keelung Port and was eventually decommissioned in 1961. When it was scrapped in 1962-3 in Taiwan, veteran shipyard workers discovered pure copper (紫銅) tubing used in the high-pressure steam lines in the engine room and cursed openly in Japanese at wasting such a precious well-crafted young vessel.]

More destroyers:
「初梅」→「信陽」
「楓」→「衡陽」
「杉」→「恵陽」
「蔦」→「華陽」

Sea defense ships［海防艦］
「隠岐」→「長白」 「対馬」→「臨安」 「四阪」→「恵安」 「屋代」→「正安」
「１４」→「済南」 「４０」→「成安」 「６７」→「営口」 「８１」→「黄安」 「８５」→「新安」
「104」→「泰安」 「107」→「潮安」 「118」→「長沙」 「192」→「同安」
「194」→「威海」 「198」→「吉安」 「205」→「長安」 ｢215」→「遼海」

Transports［輸送艦］
「１６」→「武夷」
「172」→「廬山」

Mine layers and special layers［敷設艇及敷特］
「済州」→「永靖」
「黒島」→「？」

Mine sweepers and special sweepers［掃海艇及掃特］
「１４」→「掃雷２０１」
「１９」→「掃雷２０２」
「２２」→「掃雷２０３」

Anti-submariners［駆潜艇］
「９」→「？」
「４９」→「？」

Special duty ship［特務艦］[Some in this class were, e.g., ice-breakers]
「白崎」→「武陵」 [A food transport ship]

Interestingly, the handover of IJN warships to the ROC seemed to have been handled by the US, perhaps under the guise of 美援the American aid, or it would have contradicted the post-war lenience policy that the ROC would not seek/demand any war reparation from Japan. This policy [known as the benevolent "以德報怨" policy of Chiang Kai-Sek] and the peaceful repatriation of Japanese citizens from mainland China and elsewhere had earned enormous gratitude that was to be a major factor later in the 1950-60s, in an era of intense diplomatic games played by the KMT, the CCP, and the Japanese. In 1978, Japan PM Fukuda Takeo even attended President Chiang Kai-Sek's funeral much to the displeasure of the CCP.

Other sources indicate that these ships [those within Japanese territories] were divided among the 4 nations in lotteries conducted at the Allied HQ in Tokyo (the first of four was drawn on June 28, 1947), and the officers representing the ROC were Naval Commanders 馬德建 and 姚嶼. In addition, Japan had left behind 2,169 warships of various builds in China. Of which only 192 were deemed usable and more than 1,100 were scrapped.

The ROC in fact did not demand any war compensation in silver taels as was asked of China in the Qing era by foreign powers including Japan. This might have been the core piece of the lenience policy; although the Gov't apparently did participate in dividing up the war spoils and took over abandoned Japanese war materials and public/private properties.

Whatever the reparation process was, the disarmament of Japan was complete by the end of 1947.