page_title: Asama-class cruiser
section_title: Subsequent service
hierarchical_section_title: Asama-class cruiser / Service / Subsequent service
caption_attribution_description: English: Japanese cruiser „Asama“ being towed to sea by steam tug.
context_page_description: The Asama-class cruisers were a pair 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 ships were built in Britain. They were part of the "Six-Six Fleet" expansion program that began after the defeat of China during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95. Between them, the sister ships participated in all four main naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05—the Battle of Port Arthur, the Battle off Ulsan, the Battle of the Yellow Sea, and the Battle of Tsushima—but played a much more minor role in World War I. Asama ran aground while searching for German commerce raiders in early 1915 and was under repair for the next two years. Tokiwa participated in the Battle of Tsingtao and also searched for commerce raiders. Both ships made training cruises during the war and continued to do so after the war.
  Asama continued to make training cruises until she ran aground again in 1935, after which she became a stationary training ship for the rest of her career. Tokiwa was converted into a minelayer in 1922–24.
context_section_description: In 1910–11 and 1914, Asama served as a training ship, making cruises with naval cadets to North and Central American and Hawaii, among other destinations. After the start of World War I in August 1914, she was assigned to search for Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee's German East Asia Squadron in the South Sea Islands. In late October, the ship was ordered to blockade a German gunboat in Honolulu, Hawaii before she was assigned to the American Expeditionary Squadron, the Japanese component of a joint Anglo-Japanese command to protect shipping of the western coast of the Americas, off the Mexican coast after the gunboat was interned in early November. The squadron then spent the next several months for German commerce raiders.
  While entering Puerto San Bartolomé in Baja California in early 1915, Asama struck an uncharted rock and was badly damaged. It took months to refloat her and to make her partially seaworthy. The ship was given temporary repairs at the British naval base at Esquimalt, British Columbia, before arriving back in Japan in December where permanent repairs were not completed until March 1917. Asama was assigned to the Training Squadron later that year and made another cadet training cruise in 1918.
  Tokiwa supported Japanese forces during the Battle of Tsingtao before returning to Sasebo in October 1914. She was assigned to the Training Squadron in 1916 in preparation for a training cruise that she made the following year. After arriving home, the ship was deployed to Hawaii in October 1917 to protect shipping from German commerce raiders and to allow the US Navy to redeploy its forces to the Atlantic. Tokiwa made two more cruises in 1919–20 before she began conversion into a minelayer in 1922–24. To accommodate her 200–300 mines, her rear 8-inch gun turret removed, as were the six 6-inch guns on the main deck. In addition, the number of light guns was reduced to two 12-pounders, although two 8 cm/40 3rd Year Type anti-aircraft (AA) guns were added. The gun had a maximum elevation of +75 degrees, and could fire a 3-inch, 12.5 lb (5.67 kg) projectile with a muzzle velocity of 2,200 ft/s (680 m/s) to a maximum height of 23,600 feet (7,200 m).
  Asama made a training cruise in 1921 before her armament was modified in 1922. All of her main deck guns, six 6-inch and four 12-pounder guns, were removed and their casemates plated over. In addition all of her QF 2.5-pounder guns were removed and a single 8 cm/40 3rd Year Type AA gun was added. After the refit, she resumed her training cruises, generally at two-year intervals, until she ran aground in 1935. The damage to her bottom was severe enough that the IJN decided make her a stationary training ship in 1938.
  Tokiwa's stern was badly damaged in an accidental explosion 1927 when fuzed mines were being disarmed. One mine detonated and then several others followed, killing 35 crewmen and wounding 65. The ship was assigned to the reserve fleet after repairs. She patrolled Chinese waters after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931.  In 1937–38, Tokiwa was retrofitted with eight Kampon water-tube boilers that reduced her maximum speed to 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) and her remaining torpedo tubes were removed. The space made available by these changes increased her capacity to 500 mines. In 1940, the ship was refitted as a training minelayer which reduced her capacity to 200-300 mines. As part of the refit, her forward 8-inch gun turret and the four amidships 6-inch guns were removed, as was one of the 8 cm/40 3rd Year Type AA guns. Her anti-aircraft armament was heavily reinforced with the addition of two single 40-millimeter (1.6 in) guns and twenty license-built Hotchkiss 25-millimeter Type 96 light AA guns in twin-gun mounts. The 25 mm (0.98 in) weapon was the standard Japanese light anti-aircraft gun during World War II, but it suffered from severe design shortcomings that rendered it a largely ineffective weapon. The twin and triple mounts lacked sufficient speed in train or elevation; the gun sights were unable to handle fast targets; the gun exhibited excessi
caption: Asama being towed to sea off Australia, between 1923 and 1935
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