page_title: USS Atherton
section_title: Japanese service
hierarchical_section_title: USS Atherton / Japanese service
caption_attribution_description: English: JMSDF Hatsuhi circa 1967.
context_page_description: USS Atherton, a Cannon-class destroyer escort, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lt. John McDougal Atherton, who died when USS Meredith sank near Guadalcanal during World War II.
  Atherton was laid down on 14 January 1943 at Newark, New Jersey, by the Federal Drydock & Shipbuilding Co.. The ship was launched on 27 May 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Cornelia A. Atherton, the mother of Lt. Atherton, and widow of Peter Lee Atherton of Louisville, Kentucky.
  The vessel was completed at the Norfolk Navy Yard and commissioned there on 29 August 1943, Lieutenant Commander Paul L. Mansell, Jr., USNR, in command.
context_section_description: USS Atherton was transferred to Japan in 1955 and commissioned in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force as Hatsuhi (DE-263). After 20 years in service, she was retired in 1975 and was reverted to the United States Navy.
caption: Hatsuhi c. 1967
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