Niizuki (新月, "New Moon") was an Akizuki-class destroyer built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II.

The Akizuki-class ships were originally designed as anti-aircraft escorts for carrier battle groups, but were modified with torpedo tubes and depth charges to meet the need for more general-purpose destroyers.

[4] The main armament of the Akizuki class consisted of eight 100-millimeter (3.9 in) Type 98 dual-purpose guns in four twin-gun turrets, two superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure.

Niizuki spent all of April transiting between Japanese ports, which included escorting the heavy cruiser Mogami to Kure in response of the American invasion of the Attu Islands.

[7][8] On the 16th of June, Niizuki finally departed Japan as part of a large task force of destroyers escorting the Japanese fleet to Saipan.

From the 23rd to 25th, Niizuki took part on a troop transport run to Rabaul, and upon arriving, she was chosen by rear admiral Akiyama Teruo as his flagship of the entirety of destroyer squadron 3.

Close to midnight, Niizuki finally saw her first action firing off her eight 3.9-inch (10 cm) guns with a group of six other destroyers lead by the light cruiser Yubari, shelling the enemy defenses with intense gunfire before retreating back to homebase.

The operation initially sailed smoothly, only for the task force to be spotted by allied coast watchers, which alerted their presence to the very same American cruiser-destroyer group which Niizuki had encountered the previous night.

While for the longest time it was unknown if Niizuki retaliated, the discovery of her wreck proved she managed to train her forward guns and unload several salvos and even unleashed a full spread of four torpedoes.

The American cruiser's tunnel vision on the Japanese flagship allowed for Suzukaze and Tanikaze to continue mostly unattacked, and each unloaded a spread of eight torpedoes before retreating.

The battle of Kula Gulf, in spite of Niizuki's loss, was completed in a Japanese victory, they sank far more American shipping than they lost and successfully landed the ground troops, reinforcing Kolombangara.