was one of four principal naval

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...

s owned and operated by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

History

The

Sasebo Naval District was the third of five main administrative districts of the pre-war Imperial Japanese Navy. Its territory included the western and southern coastline of Kyūshū, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan and Korea, as well as patrols in the East China Sea and t ...

was established at

Sasebo, Nagasaki is a Core cities of Japan, core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is the second-largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. , the city had an estimated population of 230,873 in 102,670 households, and a populat ...

in 1886, as the third of the naval districts responsible for the defense of the

Japanese home islands The is an archipelago of 14,125 islands that form the country of Japan. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East China and Philippine seas in the southwest along the Pacific coast of the Eurasian continent, and cons ...

. After the establishment of the navy base, a ship repair facility was established in 1889 with a

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

. With the addition of equipment and facilities for ship production by 1897, the "Sasebo Shipyards" were officially established, and renamed the "Sasebo Naval Arsenal" in 1903. Construction of the arsenal was supervised by the French engineer

Louis-Émile Bertin Louis-Émile Bertin (; 23 March 1840 – 22 October 1924) was a French naval engineer, one of the foremost of his time, and a proponent of the "Jeune École" philosophy of using light, but powerfully armed warships instead of large battleships. ...

. In 1913, a 250-ton crane was installed, and the shipbuilding facilities expanded to permit the construction of large

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as b ...

s. With the mothballing of the

Maizuru Naval Arsenal was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. History The Maizuru Naval District was established at Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture in 1889, as the fourth of the naval districts responsible for the defen ...

due to restrictions by the

Washington Naval Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting Navy, naval construction. It was negotiated at ...

, much of the design and prototype work for new classes of

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

s and

torpedo boats A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

formerly done at Maizuru was shifted to Sasebo. The facilities at Sasebo were also used for the conversion of the ''Akagi'' and ''Kaga'' from

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

s to

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

s. The Imperial Japanese Navy employed some 50,000 people at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal at the peak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, constructing and refitting destroyers,

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

s and other various naval vessels. The 21st Naval Air Arsenal (''Dai-Nijuichi Kaigun Kokusho''), established jointly at Sasebo and Omura, produced a total of 966 aircraft. The facilities at Sasebo were used for repairs on the battleships ''Yamato'' and ''Musashi'' during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

. After the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was Hirohito surrender broadcast, announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally Japanese Instrument of Surrender, signed on 2 September 1945, End of World War II in Asia, ending ...

, On September 22, 1945, the

5th Marine Division The 5th Marine Division was a United States Marine Corps ground combat division which was activated on 11 November 1943 (officially activated on 21 January 1944) at Camp Pendleton, California during World War II. The 5th Division saw its first ...

landed at Sasebo, and in June 1946,

United States Fleet Activities Sasebo U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo is a United States Navy base, in Sasebo, Japan, on the island of Kyūshū. It provides facilities for the logistic support of forward-deployed units and visiting operating forces of the United States Pacific Fleet a ...

was formally established on a portion of the former Sasebo Naval Arsenal. The remaining portion of the shipyards was given into civilian hands with the establishment of

Sasebo Heavy Industries , also simply known as the Sasebo Heavy Industries, is a company whose main business is heavy industry, based in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture. A wholly owned subsidiary of Namura Shipbuilding. Known as SSK. It is an acronym for Sasebo Ship I ...

in 1946. Sasebo Heavy Industries is one of Japan's few remaining active shipbuilders.

Ship class produced at Sasebo Naval Arsenal

Destroyers

World War I

* ''Kamikaze''-class (1905): Yūgure, Yūdachi, Mikazuki, Nowaki * ''Kaba''-class: ''

Sakaki ''Cleyera japonica'' (sakaki) is a flowering evergreen tree native to warm areas of Japan, Taiwan, China, Myanmar, Nepal, and northern India (Min and Bartholomew 2015). It can reach a height of 10 m. The leaves are 6–10 cm long, smooth, ...

'' * ''Momo''-class: ''

Momo Momo may refer to: Geography * Momo (department), Cameroon, a division of Northwest Province * Momo, Gabon, a town in the Woleu-Ntem province * Momo, Piedmont, a town in the province of Novara, Italy People Given name or nickname Athletes * ...

, Yanagi'' * ''Enoki''-class: '' Maki, Keyaki''

World War II

* ''Kamikaze''-class (1922): ''Yūnagi'' * ''Mutsuki''-class: '' Mutsuki, Mikazuki'' * ''Fubuki'' Type-1(''Fubuki''-class): '' Shinonome, Uranami'' * ''Fubuki'' Type-2(''Ayanami''-class): '' Asagiri, Akebono, Oboro'' * ''Fubuki'' Type-3(''Akatsuki''-class): ''Akatsuki'' * ''Hatsuharu''-class: '' Hatsuharu'', ''Wakaba'' * ''Shiratsuyu''-class: '' Shiratsuyu, Yūdachi'' * '' Asashio-class'': '' Asashio, Natsugumo'' * ''Kagerō''-class: '' Yukikaze, Isokaze'' * ''Akizuki''-class: '' Harutsuki, Natsuzuki'', ''Michitsuki''(Unfinished), ''Ōtsuki''(Unfinished)

Cruisers

* ''Tenryū''-class: ''Tatsuta'' * : , * : , * Experimental cruiser * : , ,

Submarines

* Type B: , , , , , , * Type C: , , , , * Sentoku class: , * Kaidai-type: , , , , , * Kaichū-type: , , , , ,

Aircraft carriers

* :

References

* *

External links

History of US Fleet Activities Sasebo
{{Authority control Imperial Japanese Navy arsenals Defunct companies of Japan Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force bases Shipyards building World War II warships Former submarine builders Torpedo manufacturers Sasebo Military history of Nagasaki Prefecture