Kagerō (陽炎, Mirage)[1] was the lead ship of the 19-vessel Kagerō-class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the late-1930s under the Circle Three Supplementary Naval Expansion Program (Maru San Keikaku).

[7] At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Kagerō, was assigned to Destroyer Division 18 (Desdiv 18), and a member of Destroyer Squadron 2 (Desron 2) of the IJN 2nd Fleet, and had deployed from Etorofu in the Kurile Islands, as part of the escort for Admiral Nagumo's Carrier Strike Force.

On 5 July, she was assigned to escort the transport Kikukawa Maru to Kiska in the Aleutian Islands on a supply mission, and on 8 August assisted in towing the damaged destroyer Kasumi back to Japan.

For the remainder of 1942 and into February 1943, she was assigned to patrols from Guadalcanal towards Shortland, and to numerous “Tokyo Express" high speed transport operations in the Solomon Islands.

On the 30th, Kagerō took part on a supply drum transport mission, and in what became the battle of Tassafaronga the convoy was ambushed by a US cruiser force.

During the action, Kagerō lost track of her divsion, and instead operated with the destroyer Makinami and they independendly fired torpedoes at the enemy near the end of the battle.

Most Japanese sources credit Kagerō and Makinami with landing the two torpedo hits that sank the heavy cruiser USS Northampton.

After making a troop transport run from Rabaul to Kolombangara on 7 May Kagerō was disabled by a naval mine while leaving Vila port.