This rare c1937 original Japanese Navy photo depicts the sailors of the cruiser warship Kuma visiting the Qingdao shine in Qingdao, China, now known as Tsingtao. This was during the The Second Sino-Japanese War.
Approximate size: 4.25 inches x 2.9 inches
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1945, as part of World War II. In China, the war is called the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. This total war between China and the Empire of Japan is often regarded as the beginning of World War II in Asia, although some scholars consider the European War and the Pacific War to be entirely separate, albeit concurrent.
It was the largest Asian war in the 20th century and has been described as "the Asian Holocaust", in reference to the scale of Imperial Japan's war crimes against Chinese civilians. After the Japanese attacks on Malaya and Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged with other conflicts which are generally categorized under the China Burma India Theater of World War II.
Kuma (球磨) was a Kuma-class light cruiser in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The lead vessel of the five ship class, she was named after the Kuma River in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan.
Immediately after commissioning, Kuma was assigned to cover the landings of Japanese troops during the Japanese intervention in Siberia against the Bolshevik Red Army. She was subsequently based at Port Arthur, and patrolled the northern China coast between the Kwantung Leased Territory and Qingdao.
Kuma was refit in late 1934 with a tripod mast, two rotatable quadruple torpedo launchers, and an aircraft catapult for launching a reconnaissance floatplane, typically a Kawanishi E7K1 "Alf". As the Second Sino-Japanese War began to escalate, Kuma patrolled the China coast, and covered the landings of Japanese forces in central China. She was captained by Captain Tadashige Daigo from November 1935 to December 1936. In December 1937, Kuma served as flagship for a squadron of minelaying submarines I-121 through I-124 based out of Qingdao until fall of 1938.
On 11 January 1944, after departing from Penang with the destroyer Uranami on anti-submarine warfare exercises, Kuma was sighted by Royal Navy submarine HMS Tally-Ho based out of Trincomalee, Ceylon. Approximately 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Penang, Tally-Ho fired a seven-torpedo salvo from 1,900 yards (1,700 m). Kuma's lookouts spotted the torpedoes' wakes, and although the rudder was sent hard over, Kuma was hit starboard aft by two torpedoes, setting the ship on fire. Kuma sank by the stern in the vicinity of 05°26′N 99°52′E detonating her own depth charges. Uranami took on survivors, including Captain Sugino, but 138 crewmen perished with the ship.
Please inspect the pictures, as they give the best representation of condition. May have discoloring, edge or corner wear, marks, creases, fading, smudges, corner or edge bends, tears, or corners missing.
(B67 inventory number)