page_title: Japanese cruiser Asama
section_title: Russo-Japanese War
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese cruiser Asama / Construction and career / Russo-Japanese War
caption_attribution_description: English: In 1904, these "fighting tars" (sailors) were part of the crew of the Japanese cruiser Asama
context_page_description: Asama was the lead ship of her class of armored cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, the ship was built in Britain. She served in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 during which she participated in the Battle of Chemulpo Bay and the Battle of the Yellow Sea without damage, although her luck did not hold out during the Battle of Tsushima. Early in World War I, Asama unsuccessfully searched for German commerce raiders until she was severely damaged when she ran aground off the Mexican coast in early 1915. Repairs took over two years to complete and she was mainly used as a training ship for the rest of her career. The ship made a total of 12 training cruises before she was crippled after running aground again in 1935. Asama then became a stationary training ship until she was broken up in 1946–1947.
context_section_description: At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in February 1904, Asama was assigned to the 2nd Division of the 2nd Fleet, although she was attached to the 4th Division of Rear Admiral Uryū Sotokichi for operations near Seoul, Korea. His ships were tasked to escort transports carrying troops to Chemulpo, Seoul's port on the west coast, and to destroy the Russian protected cruiser Varyag and gunboat Korietz stationed in Chemulpo as guardships. The troops were successfully unloaded during the night of 8/9 February and the Japanese ships left the harbor the following morning to assume positions blocking the exits as international law forbade combat between belligerents in neutral harbors. The Japanese notified the Russians that morning that a state of war existed between their countries after the IJN launched a surprise attack on Port Arthur the previous night. The two Russian ships sortied from the harbor later that morning. Varyag was the target of most of the Japanese fire and Asama hit her at least twice, destroying her bridge and punching a hole below her waterline that caused a serious list. The Russian ships managed to return to port and scuttled themselves that afternoon. Asama was not injured during the engagement and rejoined Vice Admiral Kamimura Hikonojō's 2nd Division afterwards.
  In early March, Kamimura was tasked to take the reinforced 2nd Division north and make a diversion off Vladivostok. While scouting for Russian ships in the area, the Japanese cruisers bombarded the harbor and defenses of Vladivostok on 6 March to little effect. Upon their return to Japan a few days later, the 2nd Division was ordered to escort the transports ferrying the Imperial Guards Division to Korea and then to join the ships blockading Port Arthur. Asama was then transferred to Rear Admiral Dewa Shigetō's 3rd Division. Vice Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, commander of the Combined Fleet, successfully lured out a portion of the Russian Pacific Squadron on 13 April, including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov's flagship, the battleship Petropavlovsk. During this action, Asama engaged the Russian cruisers that preceded the battleships before falling back on Tōgō's battleships. When Makarov spotted the five Japanese battleships, he turned back for Port Arthur and his flagship ran into the minefield just laid by the Japanese. The ship sank in less than two minutes after one of her magazines exploded, and Makarov was one of the 677 killed. In addition to this loss, the battleship Pobeda was damaged by a mine.
  On 23 June, the ship was present when the Pacific Squadron sortied in an abortive attempt to reach Vladivostok, but the new squadron commander, Rear Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft, ordered the squadron to return to Port Arthur when it encountered the Japanese battleline shortly before sunset, as he did not wish to engage his numerically superior opponents in a night battle.
caption: Some of the crew of Asama in 1904, prior to the Russo-Japanese War
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