And poor Yukikaze- chan's survivor's guilt keeps growing

As covered in Japanese Destroyer Captain, the stiff American resistance at the Battle of Kolombangara and the previous Battle of Kula Gulf convinced the IJN to resupply via Vella Gulf instead, leading to Shigure's own misery.

1 DD sunk, 1 DD and 3 CLs maimed for 1 CL lost is considered a victory for the Japanese?

No sense of scale by the judges I guess, because by industrial ratio that's a clear defeat. Even if they'd sunk all 5 of those allied ships that would still be a draw at best.

Guardian54 said:

1 DD sunk, 1 DD and 3 CLs maimed for 1 CL lost is considered a victory for the Japanese?

No sense of scale by the judges I guess, because by industrial ratio that's a clear defeat. Even if they'd sunk all 5 of those allied ships that would still be a draw at best.

No, it was a tactical victory because of that plus they landed 1200 men on Kolombagara, the mission objective, that night as planned. They did recognize their losses and chose to start taking an alternate route.