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The area in which friendly fire would be very appropriate would be during surface combat at night. At The Battles of Cape Esperance and tht First Night of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal the Americans, at least, had several of their ships damaged severely by friendly gunfire: Helena cranked out six full salvos at San Francisco I think in the latter battle and may have in fact been the ship that took out Adm Callahan. I'm not sure but I think Atlanta caught some friendly fire too in that fight. Duncan and Farenholt took some friendly fire at Cape Esperance I believe and Duncan sank as a result. Japanese ships firing on Japanese ships during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal is reported in several sources BUT I've never seen a Japanese source confirming same. I do know the Japanese Admiral at Cape Esperance thought he was taking fire from friendlies (last words "Bakayaro, Bakayaro" apparently referring to the reinforcement fast transport TF he was supposed to be covering so it would seem that such things were not unheardof in the IJN. I do know that HIJMS Fubuki sank 4 transports at the Battle of the Sunda Strait in March 42. Tooooo Baaaad she'd aimed her torpedoes at USS Houston and HMAS Perth and as a result of her torpedo attack the Japanese General in charge of the invasion of Western Java got to swim to shore.