page_title: Japanese battleship Kawachi
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese battleship Kawachi / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Right elevation and plan of the Kawachi-class battleships from Brassey's Naval Annual 1915
context_page_description: Kawachi was the lead ship of her class of two Kawachi-class dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the 1910s. Completed in 1912, she often served as a flagship. Her only combat action during World War I was when she bombarded German fortifications in China during the Battle of Tsingtao in 1914. She sank in 1918 after an explosion in her ammunition magazine with the loss of over 600 officers and crewmen.
context_section_description: The Kawachi class we're Japan's first true dreadnougts. They were ordered on 22 June 1907 under the 1907 Warship Supplement Program after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, although their construction was delayed by a severe depression. Their design was based on the semi-dreadnought Aki with a uniform 12-inch (305 mm) main battery.
caption: Right elevation and plan of the Kawachi-class battleships from Brassey's Naval Annual 1915
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