Asashio (朝潮, "Morning Tide")[1] was the lead ship of the ten Asashio-class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the mid-1930s under the Circle Two Program (Maru Ni Keikaku).

[5] At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Asashio served as the flagship of Destroyer Division 8 (Desdiv 8), and a member of Destroyer Squadron 2 (Desron 2), escorting Admiral Nobutake Kondō's Southern Force Main Body out of Mako Guard District as distant cover to the Malaya and Philippines invasion forces in December 1941.

Asashio suffered light damage: she was hit once with a 76 mm (3 in) shell from Tromp, losing a searchlight, four men killed, and 11 wounded.

Desron 4 sailed to Manila Bay to assist in the shelling of Corregidor in late April and May 1942, returning to Kure, before deploying to Guam.

She suffered medium damage in air attacks on 6 June, when she was hit by one 500 lb (230 kg) bomb, which killed 22 crewmen.

Desdiv 8 then made three "Tokyo Express" troop transport runs from Rabaul to Buna in late November and early December 1942.

The third run was aborted due to Allied air attack on 8 December; Asashio was temporarily disabled by near-misses by bombs off of her stern.

After weathering the first waves, Asashio was bombed and strafed later in the day while attempting to rescue survivors from destroyer Arashio and troopship Nojima Maru.