Japanese aircraft carrier Amagi Design and description . The last purpose - built Japanese carrier construction during World War II was a group of vessels based on an improved design , but with individual units differing in detail reflecting the changing circumstances as the conflict in the Pacific approached its conclusion . " Amagi " was ordered , under the provisional name of # 5001 , as part of the Kai - Maru 5 Program of 1942 . This was a massive naval construction program intended to replace losses suffered at the Battle of Midway and focused on aircraft and aircraft carriers . The ship was one of 16 s planned , although only three were completed before the end of the war . " Amagi " had a length of overall . She had a beam of and , a draft of . She displaced . Her crew consisted of 1 , 595 officers and men . The " Unryū " - class carriers used the same turbines and boilers as used in the . These consisted of four geared steam turbine sets with a total of driving four shafts . Steam was provided by eight Kampon Type B water - tube boilers . The ship had a designed speed of . " Amagi " carried of fuel oil which gave her a range of at . She had two funnels on the starboard side , each angled below horizontal . They were fitted with a water - cooling system to reduce the turbulence caused by hot exhaust gases . Flight deck arrangements . " Amagi " s flight deck was long and had a maximum width of . A small island was mounted well forward on the starboard side and contained the ship ' s bridge and air operations control center . It was fitted with a small tripod mast that mounted one of the ship ' s radar antennas . The ship was designed with two superimposed hangars that were served by two aircraft elevator s , each ; the center elevator as used in " Hiryū " was deleted to simplify construction and reduce stress in the hull . The elevators had a maximum capacity of and took 19 seconds to go from the lower hangar to the flight deck . " Amagi " was fitted with hydraulically operated Type 3 arresting gear with nine cables . She also mounted three Type 3 crash barricades . No aircraft catapult was fitted . The ship mounted a retractable crane on the starboard side of the flight deck , just aft of the rear elevator . The ship ' s air group was originally intended to consist of 12 Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters , plus three in storage , 27 Aichi D3A " Val " dive bombers , plus three in reserve , and 18 Nakajima B5N " Kate " torpedo bomber s plus two in crates . " Amagi " s hangars could not accommodate so many aircraft so eleven planes were planned to be permanently carried on the flight deck . In 1943 the air group was revised to consist of 18 Mitsubishi A7M " Sam " fighters ( + 2 in storage ) , 27 Yokosuka D4Y " Judy " dive bombers and six Nakajima C6N " Myrt " reconnaissance aircraft . Of these , the C6Ns were intended to be carried on the flight deck . When the ship commissioned in 1944 , neither the A7M nor the C6Ns were yet in service , so the air group was reconfigured to consist of 27 Zeros , 12 D4Ys , three of which were to be the reconnaissance version , and nine Nakajima B6N " Jill " torpedo bombers . By this time , however , the shortage of carrier - qualified aircrew was such that they were ordered to operate from shore bases and " Amagi " never embarked her air group . Armor , armament and sensors . " Amagi " s waterline armored belt was thick over her machinery spaces and over her magazine s . Her deck armor above the magazines was thick , but the deck above the magazines was thick . The ship ' s primary armament consisted of a dozen 40 - caliber 12 . 7 cm Type 89 anti - aircraft ( AA ) guns in twin mounts on sponsons on the ship ' s sides . " Amagi " was initially equipped with 16 triple 25 mm Type 96 and three single AA gun mounts , most on sponsons along the sides of the hull . By the end of the war , the ship mounted 22 triple and 23 single mounts . These guns were supplemented by six 28 - round AA rocket launchers . For defense against submarines , the carrier was fitted with six depth charge throwers and carried between six and ten depth charges for them . Two Type 94 high - angle fire - control director s , one on each side of the ship , were fitted to control the Type 89 guns . Each director mounted a rangefinder . Six Type 95 directors controlled the 25 mm guns and the 12 cm rocket launchers . Early warning was provided by two Type 2 , Mark 2 , Model 1 air search radar s . One of these was mounted on the top of the island while the other retracted into the port side of the flight deck , between the two elevators . In addition , " Amagi " had two smaller Type 3 , Mark 1 , Model 3 air search radars , one mounted on the tripod mast on the island and the other on the aft starboard retractable radio mast . Service . " Amagi " s keel was laid down by Mitsubishi in Nagasaki , on 1 October 1942 . She was launched on 15 October 1943 and completed on 10 August 1944 . The ship was transferred among a number of ports on the Inland Sea until she arrived in Kure in February 1945 and was ordered to be camouflaged . Her intended air group , Air Group 601 , was committed to the Battle of Iwo Jima about that same time . " Amagi " was briefly refitted from 10 to 24 February . On 19 March , the ship was attacked by aircraft from Task Force 58 and lightly damaged by one bomb that struck the edge of the flight deck . On 13 April , the ship was permanently moored at an island in Kure harbor and extensively camouflaged . This did not prevent the aircraft from Task Force 38 from locating and attacking the ship on 24 July . She was hit twice and near - missed multiple times . A bomb detonated near the rear funnel , severely damaging it , but doing little other damage aside from blowing a small hole in the starboard hull . A bomb penetrated the flight deck and detonated in the upper hangar , between the elevators . The explosion blew a section of a hangar wall overboard and the walls of the upper hangar deck were bulged and perforated multiple times . The flight deck between the elevators was bulged up and buckled for a length of and the forward elevator was dropped to the bottom of its shaft . It also blew a hole in the upper hangar deck . Fragments from the explosion penetrated into the bowels of the ship , penetrating bulkheads and decks below . Fragments from near - misses penetrated the sides of the port hull and caused the forward bomb magazine , two boiler rooms , and the aft port engine room to flood . The captain ordered the ship abandoned later in the day , and the carrier was still afloat in the evening , albeit with a slight list to port and down by the bow . Over the next couple of days , more compartments in the ship flooded and she settled on the bottom of the harbor . Another attack on 28 July hit her several more times and the resulting damage from those hits and more near - misses to port caused the ship to list further to port . This gradually increased through the next day until " Amagi " capsized at 10 : 00 on the morning of 29 July with part of her flight deck falling overboard . The losses among the ship ' s crew are unknown , but were supposedly light . The ship was stricken from the Navy List on 30 November and salvage work began on 5 December . The holes in the ship ' s hull had to be sealed to pump the water out and decrease her draft . The remains of her flight deck and upper hangar could not be made watertight and were removed using dynamite . Pontoons were used to right the ship and she was refloated on 31 July 1946 . The salvage job was conducted by the Hitachi Zosen facility in Kure and they scrapped the ship afterward . The job was completed by 12 December 1947 .