was one of four principal naval

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

s owned and operated by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

History

The Sasebo Naval District was established at

Sasebo, Nagasaki is a Core cities of Japan, core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is also the second largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. On 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 247,739 and a population de ...

in 1886, as the third of the naval districts responsible for the defense of the

Japanese home islands The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chi ...

. After the establishment of the navy base, a ship repair facility was established in 1889 with a

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

. With the addition of equipment and facilities for ship production by 1897, the "Sasebo Shipyards" were officially established, and renamed the "Sasebo Naval Arsenal" in 1903. Construction of the arsenal was supervised by the French engineer

Louis-Émile Bertin Louis-Émile Bertin (23 March 1840 – 22 October 1924) was a French naval engineer, one of the foremost of his time, and a proponent of the "Jeune École" philosophy of using light, but powerfully armed warships instead of large battleships. ...

. In 1913, a 250-ton crane was installed, and the shipbuilding facilities expanded to permit the construction of large

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster a ...

s. With the mothballing of the

Maizuru Naval Arsenal was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. History The Maizuru Naval District was established at Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture in 1889, as the fourth of the naval districts responsible for the defens ...

due to restrictions by the

Washington Naval Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...

, much of the design and prototype work for new classes of

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

s and

torpedo boats A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...

formerly done at Maizuru was shifted to Sasebo. The facilities at Sasebo were also used for the conversion of the ''Akagi'' and ''Kaga'' from

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

s to

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...

s. The Imperial Japanese Navy employed some 50,000 people at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal at the peak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, constructing and refitting destroyers,

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s and other various naval vessels. The 21st Naval Air Arsenal (''Dai-Nijuichi Kaigun Kokusho''), established jointly at Sasebo and Omura, produced a total of 966 aircraft. The facilities at Sasebo were used for repairs on the battleships ''Yamato'' and ''Musashi'' during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

. After the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

, On September 22, 1945, the 5th Marine Division landed at Sasebo, and in June 1946,

United States Fleet Activities Sasebo U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo is a United States Navy base, in Sasebo, Japan, on the island of Kyūshū. It provides facilities for the logistic support of forward-deployed units and visiting operating forces of the United States Pacific Fleet ...

was formally established on a portion of the former Sasebo Naval Arsenal. The remaining portion of the shipyards was given into civilian hands with the establishment o
Sasebo Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.
in 1946. Sasebo Heavy Industries is one of Japan's few remaining active shipbuilders.

Ship class produced at Sasebo Naval Arsenal

Destroyers

World War I

* ''Kamikaze''-class (1905): Yūgure, Yūdachi, Mikazuki, Nowaki * ''Kaba''-class: ''

Sakaki ''Cleyera japonica'' (sakaki) is a flowering evergreen tree native to warm areas of Japan, Taiwan, China, Myanmar, Nepal, and northern India (Min and Bartholomew 2015). It can reach a height of 10 m. The leaves are 6–10 cm long, smooth, ...

'' * ''Momo''-class: ''

Momo Momo may refer to: Geography * Momo (department), a division of Northwest Province in Cameroon * Momo, Gabon, a town in the Woleu-Ntem province of Gabon * Momo, Piedmont, a town in the province of Novara, in northern Italy * Joffrey Tower, in ...

, Yanagi'' * ''Enoki''-class: ''

Maki Maki may refer to: People *Mäki, a Finnish surname (includes a list of people with the name) *Maki (name), a Japanese given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name) Places *Maki, Ravar, Kerman Province, Iran *Maki, Rigan, Ke ...

, Keyaki''

World War II

* ''Kamikaze''-class (1922): ''Yūnagi'' * ''Mutsuki''-class: '' Mutsuki, Mikazuki'' * ''Fubuki'' Type-1(''Fubuki''-class): '' Shinonome, Uranami'' * ''Fubuki'' Type-2(''Ayanami''-class): '' Asagiri, Akebono, Oboro'' * ''Fubuki'' Type-3(''Akatsuki''-class): ''Akatsuki'' * ''Hatsuharu''-class: '' Hatsuharu'', ''Wakaba'' * ''Shiratsuyu''-class: '' Shiratsuyu, Yūdachi'' * '' Asashio-class'': '' Asashio,

Natsugumo At least two warships of Japan have been named ''Natsugumo'': * , an launched in 1937 and sunk in 1942 * , a launched in 1968 and struck in 1999. {{DEFAULTSORT:Natsugumo Japanese Navy ship names ...

'' * ''Kagerō''-class: '' Yukikaze, Isokaze'' * ''Akizuki''-class: '' Harutsuki, Natsuzuki'', ''Michitsuki''(Unfinished), ''Ōtsuki''(Unfinished)

Cruisers

* ''Tenryū''-class: ''Tatsuta'' * : , * : , * Experimental cruiser * : , ,

Submarines

* Type B: , , , , , , * Type C: , , , , * Sentoku class: , * Kaidai-type: , , , , , * Kaichū-type: , , , , ,

Aircraft carriers

* :

References

* *

External links

History of US Fleet Activities Sasebo
{{Authority control Imperial Japanese Navy Shipbuilding companies of Japan Defunct companies of Japan Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force bases Shipyards building World War II warships