JDS Wakaba

JDS Wakaba (DE-261) was the former Imperial Japanese Navy ship Nashi, an escort destroyer of the Tachibana sub-class of the Matsu class built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during the final stages of World War II.

Nashi was sunk in July 1945, but salvaged in 1954 and refitted to join the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in 1956 as Wakaba, later being utilised as a radar trials ship, but stricken in 1971 and scrapped in 1972-1973.

The Tachibana sub-class was a simplified version of the preceding Matsu class to make them even more suited for mass production.

The accuracy of the Type 89 guns was severely reduced against aircraft because no high-angle gunnery director was fitted.

[1][4] Photos of her taken in drydock after her salvage showed that she had been equipped with a ramp at her stern designed to launch midget submarines.

'Wakaba' means "Young Leaves" in Japanese, suggesting the "green shoots" of recovery, a symbol of a new start after the war.