The 12.7 cm/50 Type 3 naval gun was a medium-caliber naval gun of the Imperial Japanese Navy used during World War II. It was the standard weapon for Japanese destroyers between 1928 and 1944. It has been credited as a true dual-purpose gun, but this was more a nominal capability than real, as its bag propellant and need for hand ramming required the gun to be loaded at elevation angles of 5–10°. This dropped its rate of fire to a relatively slow 5–10 rounds per minute, and its training speed of only 6° per second meant that it had a great deal of difficulty engaging enemy aircraft with any chance of success. After the end of World War II, the gun was exported via the two Japanese destroyers ceded as war reparations to the Soviet Union and the Republic of China.

Shimakaze (島風) (Island Wind) was an experimental destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II, and intended as the lead ship in a projected new "Type C" of destroyers. She was the only destroyer to be armed with 15 torpedo tubes, each capable of firing the deadly 610 mm (24 in) Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo. The ship also served as a testbed for an enormously powerful, high-temperature, high-pressure steam turbine that was able to develop 79,240 shp (59,090 kW). This made her one of the fastest destroyers in the world: her design speed was 39 knots, but on trials she made 40.9 knots.