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Tenryu, a 3230-ton light cruiser built at Yokosuka, Japan, was commissioned in November 1919. With three straight, widely-spaced funnels amidships and single gun turrets, the Tenryu class of light cruisers resembles the Natori class.

She served as a destroyer flotilla leader in the 1920s, cruisign to Siberia and China, as well as home waters. The ship was refitted between 1927 and 1930, when it was given a tripod foremast. From 1931 to 1933, Tenryu patrolled the Yangtze River in China and usually operated in Chinese waters for the rest of the decade, periodically serving as a training ship and in reserve.

Plans to convert her to an anti-aircraft ship were cancelled in 1939, and she spent the next two years as a training ship at Maizuru Naval Station and on a cruise through the central Pacific in mid-1941.

In late 1940, Tenryu was based out of Truk, in the Caroline Islands. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Tenryu's CruDiv 18 was part of the Wake Island invasion force. Tenryu was strafed with machine-gun fire by a USMC Wildcat that damaged three torpedoes on its deck on December 11, 1941, but otherwise suffered no damage during the first Battle of Wake Island. The cruiser also participated in the second (successful) invasion attempt on Wake Island on December 21.

In January-April 1942, she participated in the capture of New Ireland, New Britain, northeastern New Guinea, Bougainville and the Admiralty Islands. From March through May, CruDiv 18 and Tenryu covered numerous troop landings throughout the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.

Tenryu returned to Japan for a month of repairs on May 23.

In July and August 1942, following an overhaul in Japan, she served as an escort for transports in the New Britain and New Guinea areas, and also took part in the Battle of Savo Island on 9 August. On August 9, 1942, Tenryu was in the Battle of Savo Island, together with the cruisers Yubari, Aoba, Kako, Kinugasa, Furutaka, and Chokai, and the destroyer Yunagi, which attacked US Task Group 62.6 that was screening transports with Allied invasion forces for Guadalcanal. During nighttime gun and torpedo action, Tenryu sank the USS Quincy with two torpedoes. She also contributed to sinking the USS Astoria, USS Vincennes, and HMAS Canberra. In addition, the USS Chicago, USS Ralph Talbot, and USS Patterson were damaged. Tenryu was hit by the Chicago, with 23 crewmen killed. Tenryu remained based out of Rabaul through the end of August, escorting convoys of troops and supplies.

Over the next four months, she was actively engaged in the unsuccessful campaigns to capture Milne Bay, in eastern New Guinea, and retake Guadalcanal. On October 1, the cruiser was hit by a bomb dropped by a B-17 of the 19th Bomb Group, Fifth Air Force while at Rabaul. The bomb killed 30 crewmen, but the ship was not severely damaged. Tenryu was then tasked with "Tokyo Express" transport runs from Rabaul to Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal, through early November. She made two transport runs to Guadalcanal in early November and covered the 14 November bombardment of Henderson Field.

On December 16, 1942, Tenryu departed for New Guinea; the following day, as Tenryu was departing, it was attacked by USS Albacore, which fired three torpedoes each at a transport and what it identified as a destroyer. The torpedoes missed the transport, but one hit Tenryu in the stern. Tenryu sank at 11:20 p.m. on December 19, 1942. Twenty-three crewmen were lost, but Suzukaze rescued the survivors, including Captain Ueda.

Tenryu was struck from the Navy list on January 20, 1943.

Sources: Public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

and pictures from my father's 1943 Naval Recognition Manual

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