page_title: Nagato-class battleship
section_title: Construction and service
hierarchical_section_title: Nagato-class battleship / Construction and service
caption_attribution_description: English: Mutsu at sea, 19 October 1921
context_page_description: The Nagato-class battleships were a pair of dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I, although they were not completed until after the end of the war. The last of Japan's pre-Treaty capital ships, they were the first class to carry 41 cm guns, the largest afloat and the first bigger than 15 inches. Nagato, the lead ship of the class, frequently served as a flagship. Both ships carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. They were modernized in 1933–1936 with improvements to their armor and machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. Nagato and her sister ship Mutsu briefly participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and Nagato was the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 that began the Pacific War.
  The sisters participated in the Battle of Midway in June 1942, although they did not see any combat. Mutsu saw more active service than her sister because she was not a flagship and participated in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in August before returning to Japan in early 1943.
context_section_description: While Mutsu was still fitting out, the American government decided to call a conference in Washington, D.C. to forestall the massively expensive naval arms race between the United States, the United Kingdom and the Empire of Japan that was developing. The Washington Naval Conference convened on 12 November, and the Americans proposed to scrap virtually every capital ship under construction or fitting out among the participating nations. Mutsu was specifically listed among those to be scrapped even though she had been commissioned a few weeks earlier. This was unacceptable to the Japanese delegation and they agreed to a compromise that allowed them to keep Mutsu in exchange for scrapping the obsolete dreadnought Settsu and a similar arrangement for several American Colorado-class dreadnoughts that were fitting out.
  Upon commissioning, the sister ships were assigned to the 1st Battleship Division, although Nagato became the flagship of Rear Admiral Sōjirō Tochinai, a role she often fulfilled during her career. The ships hosted Edward, Prince of Wales, and his aide-de-camp Lieutenant Louis Mountbatten in 1922 during the prince's visit to Japan. After the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, both ships loaded supplies from Kyushu for the victims on 4 September. They sank the hulk of the obsolete battleship Satsuma on 7 September 1924 during gunnery practice in Tokyo Bay in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty. Nagato became flagship of the Combined Fleet on 1 December 1925, flying the flag of Admiral Keisuke Okada. The sisters were placed in reserve several times during the 1920s while they were being modernized. Mutsu served as flagship of Emperor Hirohito during the 1927 naval maneuvers and fleet review and again in 1933.
  The ships were reconstructed from late 1933 to mid-1936. In August 1937, the sisters transported 3,749 men of the 11th Infantry Division to Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Their floatplanes bombed targets in Shanghai on 24 August before they returned to Sasebo the following day. Nagato became a training ship on 1 December 1937 until she again became the flagship of the Combined Fleet on 15 December 1938. The ship participated in an Imperial Fleet Review on 11 October 1940. The sisters were refitted in 1941 in preparation for war, which included the fitting of external degaussing coils and additional armor for their barbettes.
caption: Mutsu at sea, 19 October 1921
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