Sumida was the second of two vessels in the Fushimi-class river gunboats authorized under the 3rd Naval Armaments Supplement Programme of 1937.

She was propelled by two Kampon steam turbine engines with two boilers driving two shafts, producing 2,200 hp (1,600 kW) and had a top speed of 17 knots.

On commissioning on 31 May 1940, she was assigned to the Yokosuka Naval District and attached to the 1st China Expeditionary Fleet, arriving in Shanghai on 17 June.

[2] On 22 June Sumida was attached to the Tung Ting Lake force, along with Katada and Seta was part of “Operation SE”.

On 22 June 1944, a flight of twenty USAAF B-24 Liberators attached to the Fourteenth Air Force bombed the docks at Hankou, damaging Sumida and killing eight crewmen.