HOKAN!

Stories and Battle Histories of the IJN's Gunboats

2 November 2007

By Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp and Peter Cundall

Discussion & Questions

(Gunboat IJN HOZU by Takeshi Yuki scanned from "Color Paintings of Japanese Warships")

During the Pacific War, a number of former Allied, Axis and Neutral vessels that had been scuttled or otherwise acquired in various ports in the Far East were put into service by the Japanese.

This page will cover the activities of eight such vessels that later saw service as Imperial Navy gunboats. As with other small combatants, in some cases data for these vessels are incomplete and detailed data of their movements were not found. Readers with access to such missing data are requested to post the information and their sources on the Discussion and Questions board or at the IJN Ship Message Board.

Tabular Records of Movement (TROMs):

Gunboats

(Ex-Countries link to specifications summaries)

Ex-British Vessel

SUMA (Ex-HMS
MOTH) (revised 9/7/07)

Ex-American Vessels

KARATSU (Ex-USS
LUZON) (posted 9/7/07)

TATARA (Ex-USS
WAKE) (posted 9/7/07)
Ex-Italian Vessels

NARUMI (Ex-RM
CARLOTTO) (posted 10/12/07)

OKITSU (Ex-RM
LEPANTO) (posted 10/12/07)

Ex-Dutch Vessels

NANKAI (Ex-Hr.Ms.
REGULUS)

Ex-Chinese
Vessel

NANYO (Ex-TEH HSING)

Ex-Portuguese Vessel

MAIKO (Ex-MACAU) (posted 8/17/07)

Bibliography of Sources

About the Authors

Mr. Robert Hackett is a military historian and researcher. Retired from the United States Air Force and later from the aerospace industry, he resides in Florida.

Mr. Sander Kingsepp, a native of Estonia, is a free-lancing journalist, military historian and researcher. A talented linguist, Sander's translations of Japanese source materials have greatly enhanced these TROMs.

Mr. Peter Cundall is a maritime historian and researcher who specializes in merchant ships. He resides in Australia.

Questions to the authors concerning these TROMs should be posted on the Discussion and Questions board.