was the fifth of six s, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy under the Circle One Program (Maru Ichi Keikaku). Three were laid down in JFY 1931 and the next three in JFY 1933. History Construction of the advanced Hatsuharu-class destroyers was intended to give the Imperial Japanese Navy smaller and more economical destroyers than the previous and destroyers, but with essentially the same weaponry. These conflicting goals proved beyond contemporary destroyer design, and the initial ships of this class were top-heavy design, with severe stability problems and with inherent structural weaknesses. After the "Tomozuru Incident" of 1934 and "IJN 4th Fleet Incident" in 1935, Ariake underwent extensive design changes and modifications prior to launch to remedy these issues. Ariake was laid down at Kawasaki Shipyards in Kobe on 14 January 1933, launched on 23 September 1934 and commissioned on 25 March 1935. Operational history At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ariake was assigned to Destroyer Division 27 of Destroyer Squadron 1 of the IJN 1st Fleet together with her sister ships , , and , and was based at Hashirajima in Japanese home waters on anti-submarine patrol. In January 1942, Ariake escorted aircraft carriers and to Palau and to Ambon during the invasion of the Netherlands East Indies, and was a participant in the Darwin air raid of 19 February 1942. Afterward, she was based at Staring Bay, in Sulawesi from which she conducted escort patrol missions to the end of March. She returned to Sasebo Naval Arsenal for repairs from 22 March to 15 April 1942. At the end of April, she went to Truk as part of the escort for the carriers and and was part of Admiral Takeo Takagi's force at the Battle of the Coral Sea. In May, she was reassigned to escort the cruisers and back to Kure. During the Battle of Midway, she was part of the escort for the Aleutian diversionary force under Admiral Shirō Takasu. Reassigned to the IJN 2nd Fleet on 14 July, she was then detached for temporary duty with the IJN 4th Fleet in a sortie from Truk to Jaluit on 20 August. After bombarding Nauru on 23 August, a landing party from Ariake occupied that island as part of "Operation RY" on 26 August until relieved by a garrison force on 30 August. Ariake was then assigned to the Solomon Islands, participating in a