Shimakaze

History: Shimakaze (Island Wind) was a one-off super-destroyer built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She was armed with six 127 mm (5.0 in) dual purpose guns and conventional anti-aircraft and anti-submarine weaponry. More importantly, she was the only Japanese destroyer to be armed with 15 torpedo tubes each capable of firing the deadly 610 mm (24 in) Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo. The ship was a testbed for an enormously-powerful, high-temperature, high-pressure steam engine that was able to develop 79,240 shp (59,090 kW). This made her one of the fastest destroyers in the world: her designed speed was 39 kn (72 km/h; 45 mph), but on trials she made 40.9 kn (75.7 km/h; 47.1 mph).

Type: Destroyer

Primary Country: 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.