"favorable wind")[1] was the tenth vessel to be commissioned in 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).

On 21 May 1942, Tokitsukaze and Desron 2 steamed from Kure to Saipan, where they rendezvoused with a troop convoy and sailed toward Midway Island.

[8] On 14 July, Tokitsukaze was reassigned to the IJN 3rd Fleet and was assigned to escort the transport Nankai Maru to Rabaul, returning with the cruiser Mogami to Kure in mid-August.

In early November, she returned to Kure with Zuikaku, and participated in training exercises in the Inland Sea through the end of the year.

After redeploying to Shortland Island, on 10 January, while providing cover for a supply-drum transport run to Guadalcanal, Tokitsukaze assisted in sinking the American PT boats PT-43 and PT-112.

During the Battle of Bismarck Sea on 3 March 1943, Tokitsukaze was damaged by an Allied air attack, which killed 19 crewmen and left her dead in the water.

Her skipper, Cdr Masayoshi Motokura, gave the order to abandon ship, and the survivors were taken aboard the destroyer Yukikaze.