page_title: Japanese cruiser Izumo
section_title: China service and World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese cruiser Izumo / Construction and career / China service and World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Colorized and cropped version of File:Japanese cruiser Izumo in Shanghai 2.jpg
context_page_description: Izumo 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 itself, the ship was built in Britain. She often served as a flagship and participated in most of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The ship was lightly damaged during the Battle off Ulsan and the Battle of Tsushima. Izumo was ordered to protect Japanese citizens and interests in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution and was still there when World War I began in 1914.
  She was then tasked to search for German commerce raiders and protect Allied shipping off the western coasts of North and Central America. The ship assisted the armored cruiser Asama in early 1915 when she struck a rock off Baja California. In 1917, Izumo became the flagship of the Japanese squadron deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. After the war, she sailed to Great Britain to take control of some ex-German submarines and then escorted them part of the way back to Japan.
context_section_description: On 2 February 1932, during the First Shanghai Incident, Izumo became the flagship of the newly re-established 3rd Fleet under Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura and arrived in Shanghai six days later. In 1934, Izumo was equipped to operate a floatplane at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal.
  Shortly after the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937, Izumo was attacked on 14 August 1937 in a series of raids by Chinese Air Force aircraft during the Battle of Shanghai. Most of the bombs landed in the river without effect, but two bombs landed among spectators, killing hundreds. Izumo's Nakajima E4N floatplane and another from the light cruiser Sendai managed to get into the air and they claimed to have shot down one Curtiss Hawk biplane fighter and a Northrop Gamma bomber. Two days later, her E4N claimed to have shot down another Hawk. Izumo was attacked that same day by a Chinese torpedo boat, but the torpedoes missed and the boat was abandoned by its crew. The ship provided naval gunfire support to Japanese troops ashore during the battle. Izumo was repeatedly attacked without effect by Chinese aircraft for the duration of the Battle of Shanghai.
  Still in Shanghai at the beginning of the Pacific War on 8 December 1941, Izumo captured the American river gunboat USS Wake and assisted in sinking the British river gunboat HMS Peterel. On 31 December, the cruiser struck a mine in the Lingayen Gulf while supporting Japanese forces during the Philippines Campaign. She was towed to Hong Kong in February 1942 for repairs. Izumo was re-classified as a 1st-class cruiser on 1 July. She returned to Japan in late 1943 and was reclassified as a training ship for the Kure Naval District.
  On 19 March 1945, Izumo was attacked by American carrier aircraft off Etajima, although they failed to inflict any damage. Shortly afterwards, her 8-inch guns were replaced by four 12.7 cm (5.0 in) Type 89 dual-purpose guns in two twin mounts and four of her remaining 6-inch guns were removed. Her light anti-aircraft armament was significantly reinforced by the addition of 14 license-built Hotchkiss 25-millimeter Type 96 light AA guns in two triple, two twin, and four single-gun mounts and two 13.2-millimeter Hotchkiss machine guns in single mounts. The ship was damaged by an American mine on 9 April off Hiroshima. Izumo was not attacked on the first day of the American aerial attack on Kure on 24 July 1945, but she was near missed three times four days later. The shockwave from the detonations sprang the ship's seams and the resulting flooding caused her to capsize at coordinates 34°14′N 132°30′E. She was removed from the navy list on 20 November and her hulk was raised and scrapped in 1947 by the Harima Dock Company.
caption: Izumo at anchor in the Huangpu River, Shanghai, 1932. The armored cruiser USS Rochester is anchored to the left.
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