Imperial Japanese Navy Destroyers 1919–45 (1)A detailed, illustrated look at the earliest seven classes of destroyer fielded by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Several classes of Japanese destroyer were built before the war, including the famous Fubuki class. Known as the Special Type by the Japanese, these destroyers were, upon their completion in the late 1920s, the most powerful class of destroyers in the world. This design pressured all other major navies to follow suit and