Shortly after the end of the First World War, the Japanese commissioned two small 3,500ton modern light cruisers (Tenryu and Tatsuta) to serve as flotilla leaders among the new destroyer and submarine squadrons then entering service. It soon became evident that these cruisers were undersized and underpowered for their roles. Additionally, they were under-gunned when compared to contemporary types then building by other nations. 

Plans for an additional six Tenryu class ships were cancelled, and an enlarged design featuring greater size, speed, range, and armament was approved. These new ships were intended not only as destroyer squadron flagships, but also capable of being consolidated into light cruiser squadrons to provide escorts for their capital ships, conduct long range patrols, and protect trade routes. 
 

Design

Nineteen such vessels were originally authorized under several programs. Fourteen vessels were completed between 1920 and 1925; the rest cancelled due to the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Collectively referred to as the 5500 tonners, the Japanese considered them a very successful design during the interwar years. The first five vessels were known as the Kuma class or subgroup.

They utilized the same hull lines as the Tenryus, but with a hull approximately one third larger in displacement, one deck higher amidships and 60 plus feet longer. The hull form was optimized for speed with a high length to beam ratio after conducting many model towing tank tests.  A long forecastle with high freeboard to assist in heavy seakeeping was adopted. The design retained the spoon bow first seen in the Tenryus. 

Oil powered boilers and four geared turbines drove these ships at a top speed of 36 knots, up from the prior class’s 33 knots. Engine power rose from 51,000shp to 90,000shp and was transmitted through a set of four propeller shafts. and their range grew from considerably.  The boilers exhausted through what became a characteristic set of three funnels.

The Kumas mounted seven Type 3 14cm 50 cal. guns in open backed shields as their main battery, five mounted on the centerline and another two were wing mounted to either side of the bridge. To enhance their role as destroyer leaders, four sets of twin torpedo tubes carrying 53cm/21-inch diameter torpedoes were mounted, two sets per side, with one set of reloads per mount. Their initial AA armament was very light. Rails for storing and laying up to 48 mines off the stern were also provided,

Refits throughout the 1930s upgraded their basic abilities and they continued to act as destroyer squadron leaders. However, by the time the Pacific War started, most of the class were verging on the obsolete. The 5500 tonners in general had become outclassed by the light cruiser designs of other navies, most of which were larger, better armed, and possessed more effective antiaircraft defenses. In the meantime, the Japanese Navy had prioritized other ship type construction, so their limited shipbuilding capacity essentially kept the 5500 tonners in service as front-line units. 

The subsequent Agano class light cruiser was a more modern design, but the first unit would not become available until late 1942.  So, the 5500 tonners were actively involved in the war from the outset. Wartime refits included upgraded AA and ASW capabilities, but size and stability limitations led to minimal improvements to the class in general.
 

A Brief Ship History

Named after a significant river in northern Honshu, Kitakami (??), was laid down at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal on September 1, 1919. She was launched on July 3, 1920 and commissioned into service on April 15, 1921. After working up, she replaced Tenryu as the flagship of the 2nd Destroyer Squadron, based at Kure. Throughout the 1920s, she served in her intended role under a variety of circumstances. 

In late October, 1930, Kitakami was one of many participating IJN vessels in that year’s Grand Fleet Maneuvers, their annual set of fleetwide battle exercises that was similar to the annual fleet problems conducted by the US Navy.   On the night of the 20th, sister ship Abukuma rammed Kitakami between numbers two and three funnels. Though Kitakami’s damage was minimal and above the waterline, Abukuma lost her bow back to number one mount. Both were quickly repaired, though Abukuma gained a new, clipper-type bow form. 

During the 1930s, Kitakami, like the other 5500 tonners, underwent various refits and received improvements, including a tripod foremast, glassed in bridge windows, lookout posts to either side of the bridge, a 4m rangefinder atop the compass bridge deck, radio telephones, and additional targeting instrumentation atop the foremast.  Her funnels were shortened slightly to compensate for additional topweight. Additionally, she underwent hull strengthening along with most other IJN warships after several ships incurred serious damage during a typhoon, in what is referred to as the Fourth Fleet Incident of 1935.

During the mid to late 1930s, Kitakami supported Japanese forces in numerous landings and operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War.   She also rotated out at various times out to serve as a Kure-based guard ship, gunnery training vessel, and made several training cruises. 

In 1936, the Naval General Staff decided to tweak its plan of night time, massed torpedo attack against an enemy battle line by adding specially equipped torpedo cruisers to the destroyer squadrons. Three of the older 5,500ton cruisers were designated for conversion:  Kitakami, Ooi, and Kiso. These conversions would entail each ship carrying ten quadruple torpedo mounts carrying the just introduced Type 93 Long Lance torpedo on new sponsons (five mounts to a side) as well as an eleventh set mounted on the centerline, plus an upgraded main armament of four twin 12.7cm mounts fore and aft, and four twin 25mm AA mounts. 

The actual conversion plans were not formalized until late in 1938. At that point, it was considered necessary to conceal the existence of such cruisers by holding off on these reconstructions until the fleet transformed from a peacetime to a wartime footing. The conversions were expected to take approximately three to four months. To expedite the actual conversions, orders for equipment such as the numerous torpedo mounts and HA guns were placed in advance, but it soon became evident that Japanese industry would not be able to meet the equipping demands for three such cruisers. Plans were scaled back to accommodate two conversions, those for Kitakami and Ooi. 

On November 15, 1940, the decision to change the fleet over to a wartime footing was made, and preliminary preparations were begun for the conversions, including assigning Kitakami to the Sasebo Naval Arsenal for modification, and Ooi to the Maizuru Naval Arsenal. The actual modifications did not commence until late August, 1941 and were completed by late September. 

Kitakami and her sister were modernized with a complete reliance on oil-fired boilers, a steel topped roof to her bridge, revised crew quarters, improved engine room ventilation, and the addition of twin 25mm AA weapons for anti-aircraft defense. Plans for adding four twin 12.7cm HA on the centerline in lieu of her 14cm mounts were cancelled when it became apparent that such availability was impossible within the planned timeline. Instead, the four forward 14cm mounts were retained.

Long sponsons 1.6m wide were added to each side of her hull amidships in order to widen her main deck, upon which were placed ten sets of quad 61cm (Long Lance) torpedo mounts, five per side.   The eleventh planned torpedo mount was also deleted due to the same lead time issues. No torpedo reloads were provided for due to excess topweight and stability concerns.

After the conversions were complete, Kitakami and Oi were assigned to the 9th Squadron under the control of the First Fleet (the Japanese battleship force) as guardships.  After the start of hostilities that December, CruDiv 9 essentially spent the first six months of the war in Japanese waters training and escorting the occasional convoy or battleship movement. In May, CruDiv 9 was assigned to the Aleutian Operation during the Battle of Midway as escorts to BatDiv2’s Fuso, Yamashiro, Ise, and Hyuga. After the successful occupation of Attu and Kiska, (which proved uneventful for the battleship force), Kitakami and Ooi returned to Japan in late June. 

In the wake of the fiasco at Midway and the subsequent landing of US forces on Guadalcanal in early August, a quick decision was made by the Naval General Staff, to have Kitakami and her sister immediately modified into fast transports for reinforcement operations. The aftmost four of their ten quadruple torpedo launchers were removed, leaving six mounts (twenty-four tubes) forward, three per side. They were then equipped with launching davits and two 14m Daihatsu landing craft in place of the removed torpedo mounts. Also fitted were two additional triple 25mmAA mounts aft, and roll-off depth charge racks /launch rails installed at the stern

After the fast transport conversions were completed in early September, both ships embarked troops of the 4th Maizuru Special Landing Force at Yokosuka and delivered them, via Truk, to the Shortlands Islands by October 6th.  Both ships returned to Truk, where they presumably remained for the rest of the month. In early November, CruDiv9 was disbanded and both ships attached directly to Combined Fleet, the overall command structure. The rest of November and part of December was spent transporting troops between Manila, Truk and Rabaul. In late December, 1942, both Kitakami and Ooi returned to Japan, where they entered Sasebo for a refit.  Some sources state that two more torpedo mounts, one per side, were removed at this point. 

After completion of the refits in early January, 1943, both ships embarked troops in Korea and transported them as part of a convoy to New Guinea as part of the Reinforcement of New Guinea initiative. Several such reinforcement convoys took place in the first five months of 1943, with other stops in places such as Makassar and Surabaya.  Administratively, both ships were assigned to CruDiv 16 in mid-March, joining sisters Kinu and Kuma.  All four units were based out of Surabaya. 
All four ships were docked at Makassar on June 23rd when B-24s from the 5th Air Force bombed the dock area. None of the cruisers were hit, but some sustained slight damage from near-misses. In mid-August, Kitakami was drydocked for two weeks at Seletar Naval Base, Singapore for another refit. More transport and convoy escort duty ensued throughout the fall of 1943 to points all over the Southwest Pacific. Another short drydocking took place again at Seletar in December. Afterwards, further training and transport duties continued into the new year, again in the company of Ooi. 

In very late January 1944, Kitakami was transiting the Malacca Strait in the company of Kinu, both carrying Army reinforcements, when she was hit aft by two torpedoes fired by the submarine HMS Templar. Kitakami suffered a fair amount of damage with 12 crewmen killed. Kinu took Kitakami in tow to Angsa Bay, Malaya for emergency repairs, followed by more extensive repairs at the No. 101 Repair Facility at Seletar Naval Base in February. Repairs were not completed until June 21st. 

However, after departing Singapore to escort the tanker Kyokuto Maru, Kitakami began to take on water and had to put into Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines for still further repairs during the last two weeks of July. Eventually, she made it to Sasebo in mid-August.  There, the decision was made to convert her once again, this time to a kaiten carrier (kaitens being Type 93 Long Lance torpedoes modified and enlarged to carry a human driver as a suicide weapon). Kitakami was not only to provide transport and act as a training base for the kaiten, but it was also expected that Kitakami would participate in an attack while defending the homeland. A load of eight kaitens was planned for. 

Modifications included the removal of her aft turbines (damaged in the Templar torpedo attack) which lowered her top speed from 36 to 23 knots, her stern was modified with inclined ramps on either side that allowed the launch of kaitens by backing them down the ways on trolley rails, the removal of all the remaining torpedo mounts, the extension of the trolley rails forward over the sponsons to store up to four kaitens per side, the installation of a 20 ton crane originally from Chitose (in her seaplane carrier configuration) to handle the kaitens,  the removal of all her current armament and their replacement with  two twin 12.7cm HA mounts, twelve triple 25mm AA mounts, and thirty-one single 25mm AA mounts, the installation of roll-off depth charge rails and throwers, plus two Type 13 air search and one Type 22 surface search radars.  Other changes were made to her communications suite, while torpedo related functions and positions were eliminated.

The work was completed in late January, 1945, at which point Kitakami relocated to Kure. The next few months were spent training kaiten pilots while remaining situated on the Inland Sea. Fuel shortages curtailed training as time went on, resulting in more and more time instances of her remaining moored. While moored, Kitakami endured Task Force 58’s March attacks on Kure with no damage, but did incur light damage and some personnel losses during subsequent attacks in July from Task Force 38 aircraft. 

After the surrender of Japan in early September, Kitakami was inspected, found operational, and assigned to repatriation duties. She made numerous repatriation voyages through early 1946. In July, she was towed to Mitsubishi’s Nagasaki shipyard for scrapping, which was completed in March, 1947. 

A detailed record of her activities can be found in her TROM record here.

Pit-Road produced the first injection molded version of Kitakami, which appeared in 1999 (sister Oi had been released in 1998).  When these kits appeared, they were a very welcome surprise and addition to the waterline fleet. Photo etch upgrades helped to keep the kits in demand, but eventually, these kits were surpassed by those of other manufacturers utilizing improved references and production technology.

Fujimi released a late war version of Kitakami in 2014. A subsequent release included a comprehensive photo etch fret. As befits most Fujimi kits over the last decade, this kit carries a great deal of fine detail. 

Aoshima has released three versions, a 1941-2 heavy torpedo battery fit, the high-speed transport version, and the Kaiten carrying version, all in 2017. All versions are nicely detailed and well-regarded. 

This review kit is the Fujimi late war, kaiten carrying version, with the addition of a large photoetch fret. The kit is molded in a light gray plastic that is hard and clean, with no soft or greasy aspects. There is a hint of flash on some pieces. The detailing of features is sharp and nicely defined for 1/700.  The scaling of these same features is also extremely good in almost all respects. There are twelve sprues containing approximately 125 pieces, not all of which are used. The photoetch fret is made of brass and is relatively comprehensive in nature.
 

Surprisingly, there are no eyebrows over the portholes, nor are there covers where sealed portholes would have been located. (While this may be due to documentation issues, it is a certainty that most existing portholes would simply have been closed off with plated covers, as was the expedient practice. There was neither time nor material to waste on actually replacing the porthole with new hull plating.)

There are no hull plating lines, nor are the special sponsons amidships molded as part of the hull. The bow profile is excellent, and the stern has twin sponson supports for the launching ramps that angle down to the water from the main deck aft. There are several injection runners placed within the hull that prevent the hull from sitting fully flat, but as far as I can tell, the hull appears to lie mostly flat.

The hull scales out essentially correct. (Note that these measurements apply only to the basic hull. I do not have measurements for the sloped sponsons at the stern, nor the amidships sponsons.) The class particulars versus the scale and this kit:
 

Detail and quality seem typical for a Fujimi kit in that parts are scaled well and mostly good on the detail. The sponsons carry the midships portion of the degaussing cable. The RDF antenna is a bit on the simplistic side.

The inclusion of funnel baffles is an puzzling touch. The funnel grills are mostly solid (though very sharp) which would make it impossible to see the baffles. However, the replacement of the grills with photo etched versions obviously changes their visibility. And yet, the photoetch fret includes its own set of baffles. 

There’s a decent amount of detail included: treading on the bridge decks, 25mm AA boxes with hinges, wind baffles around the bridge windows, plus dogged hatches and portholes with eyebrows. Though why eyebrows were included here but not on the hull is baffling and certainly inconsistent. 

From the trivia corner: operationally, only Type 1s were ever used in combat, and Kitakami never undertook an operational kaiten assignment. 

Sub-assemblies are shown in good detail, and the construction process appears straightforward. One panel is devoted to the sprue layout and parts breakdown, as well as the painting scheme and color callouts. The callouts are keyed to Gunze Sangyo Mr. Color paints. 

This review sample was courtesy of Martin Quinn. This limited edition kit listed at retail in Japan for approximately US$38, plus shipping. It’s currently out of production, but the kit can be had from various online, overseas sellers with some diligent searching. The kit and photo etch can still be purchased separately for a little more money.