Qualla: Japanese Minelayer Tsugaru

Japanese Minelayer Tsugaru: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit unknown (不明), Public domain. She was built to carry 600 naval mines and a reconnaissance seaplane, commissioned six weeks before Pearl Harbor, and spent the next two and a half years criss-crossing the Pacific in support of nearly every major Japanese operation in the war's first phase. The minelayer Tsugaru -- named for the peninsula in northwest Aomori Prefecture -- participated in the invasion of Guam, the seizure of Rabaul and Kavieng, operations at Lae, the Coral Sea campaign, the Guadalcanal supply runs, and the relief of Biak. By June 1944, she was limping through the waters off Halmahera with torpedo damage, trying to reach Manila. She never made it.

Image: unknown (不明) | Public domain

Japanese Minelayer Tsugaru: A Ship for Every Operation

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 禁樹なずな, CC BY-SA 4.0. Tsugaru was funded under Japan's Maru-3 Supplementary Naval Expansion Budget of 1937, designed as an improvement over the earlier minelayer Okinoshima. She could carry 600 Type 6 naval mines, was equipped with an aircraft catapult for a Kawanishi E7K reconnaissance seaplane, and ...

Image: 禁樹なずな | CC BY-SA 4.0

Japanese Minelayer Tsugaru: From Rabaul to Guadalcanal

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 禁樹なずな, CC BY-SA 4.0. The pace of operations was relentless. In January 1942, Tsugaru deployed from Jaluit alongside Okinoshima for Operation R -- the invasion of Rabaul and Kavieng. In March, she supported the invasion of Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea, where ninety American aircraft attacked the inv...

Image: 禁樹なずな | CC BY-SA 4.0

Japanese Minelayer Tsugaru: Damage, Repair, Repeat

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 禁樹なずな, CC BY-SA 4.0. The pattern of Tsugaru's later career was damage followed by repair followed by more damage. After the Guadalcanal bombing, she continued transport runs to the Solomon Islands until February 1943. Repairs at Yokosuka kept her in drydock until May. Returning to Rabaul in August, s...

Image: 禁樹なずな | CC BY-SA 4.0

Japanese Minelayer Tsugaru: Two Torpedoes Off Halmahera

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 禁樹なずな, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 21 June 1944, departing Sorong for Halmahera Island, Tsugaru was torpedoed by the Royal Netherlands Navy submarine. The damage was severe but not immediately fatal. After temporary repairs, she attempted to reach Manila. Eight days later, on 29 June, an American submarine spot...

Image: 禁樹なずな | CC BY-SA 4.0