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The carrier arm of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) prior to, and during, World War 2 (1939-1945) was the lifeblood of the Japanese war machine in the Pacific. By this time, the aircraft carrier was making its case to supplant the battleship as the capital ship in most navies. As such, considerable effort was made on the part of the IJN to ensure its survival in the coming decades and leave no doubt that the nation had risen to become a global power among the few.

Even with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 in place, nations like Germany and Japan skirted warpower restrictions to enact major new naval programs and bring about a second global arms race. For the IJN, this resulted in the "Ryujo", a one-off, light-class aircraft carrier whose design began as an 8,000-ton hull to remain under the Treaty's 10,000-ton limit. This approach, of course, meant that certain qualities of the ship would have to be revised to remain under the limit, thus forcing little armor protection to be installed over critical components and under decking. Originally intended to carry just 24 combat aircraft, this was increased to 48 before her construction was completed.

The warship was laid down on November 26th, 1929 and formally launched to sea on April 2nd, 1931. She was commissioned into service with the Imperial Japanese Navy on May 9th, 1933 to begin a career that lasted barely a decade. Within a year of having entered service, the warship was taken back to dock to have her stability addressed.

As built, this light carrier was given a rated displacement of 8,000 tons under standard load which could balloon up to 10,150 tons if pressed. Overall length of the vessel was 590.2 feet with a beam of 66.7 feet and a draught down to 18.2 feet. Its original hull work was clearly evident in the finished design as the carrier component, complete with straight-through / flushed flight deck space, was simply added over the existing base hull structure that retained the pointed bow and rounded stern facing.

Power stemmed from 12 x Kampon water-tube boiler units feeding 2 x Geared steam turbines developing 65,000 horsepower to 2 x Shafts astern.

Aboard was a complement of 600 men.

Armament was purely defensive in nature, as the carrier's air arm and accompanying warships would suffice in its protection. This suite consisted of 6 x 127mm Dual-Purpose (DP) twin-gunned emplacements and 12 x 132mm Anti-Aircraft (AA) twin-gunned emplacements.

As early as 1936, the vessel underwent a refit which increased displacement to 10,600 tons standard and up to 12,735 tons under load. The beam was widened by two feet and the draught increased to 23.2 feet for better sea-worthiness. The crew complement was expanded considerably to 934 men and armament was trimmed to 4 x 127mm DP twin-gunned mountings with 2 x 25mm AA twin-gunned mountings.

First-contact operations for the carrier were had during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) against Chinese elements. From there, the carrier was a fixture of Japanese naval operations during the early portion of the Pacific Campaign in World War 2 (1939-1945), supporting offensive ground actions against the Philippines, Malaya, and into the Dutch East Indies. The vessel was then used in the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands during June of 1942. Her luck eventually ran out on August 24th, 1942 when she was destroyed and ultimate sunk by American naval warplanes during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Her name was stricken from the Naval Register on November 10th, 1942.©MilitaryFactory.com

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