The photograph shows the Japanese cruiser Izumo moored off Shanghai circa 1937. The ship is anchored in the Huangpu River, downstream from the city’s famous Bund. In the distance can be seen some of the great European trading houses, including the domed headquarters of The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Customs House with its distinctive clock tower. A ‘rising sun’ aft of the mainmast betrays the ship’s nationality. The single forward turret, the unshielded guns amidships, and other features such as the ventilation cowl visible behind the aft funnel, suggests a turn-of-the-century design. The city appears to be at peace, but in fact Izumo’s presence often heralded bloody conflict, never more so than when this photograph was taken, which marked the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Izumo was in fact a product of an earlier Sino-Japanese War. A hard-fought victory against Chinese naval forces at The Battle of the Yalu River in 1894 had convinced the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) of the need for larger and more powerful warships. The resulting First Naval Expansion Program of 1896 called for a battle-fleet comprising six battleships and six ‘armoured cruisers’; a large cruiser design then in vogue with the world’s leading navies. The Japanese had relied on both French and British shipyards to construct their previous warships, having limited shipbuilding capabilities themselves, and the British had proved to be more reliable suppliers, and to offer ships with much superior weaponry.
Three of the most effective warships during this War had been British cruisers built by Armstrong Whitworth & Co. at Elswick on Tyneside, so it was unsurprising that the IJN turned to the same company for its new acquisitions. In fact, orders for no less than seven units of this Six-Six fleet would be placed with Armstrong; including four armoured cruisers, of which two belonged to the Izumo Class. The man responsible for the design of all of these warships was Sir Philip Watts, chief constructor and general manager of the Elswick Shipyard from 1885 to 1902. Watts would go on to become Director of Naval Construction at the Admiralty and oversee the design and construction of HMS Dreadnought. This increasing Anglo-Japanese naval cooperation culminated in the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902.
Izumo and her sister closely followed the design of the preceding Asama Class, the most noticeable difference being an additional funnel. All four vessels were just under 10,000t in displacement and had a top speed of 18kts. Each carried the same type and arrangement of weaponry; four 8-in guns in twin turrets fore and aft, and twelve 6-in QF guns amidships in either lower-feck casemates or on the main deck. Izumo was launched into the Tyne on 19th September 1898 and completed just over two years later, reaching Japan’s Sasebo naval base on 8th December 1900.
The Anglo-Japanese Alliance helped pave the way for the commencement of the Russo-Japanese War, for which Izumo took her place as flagship in the Second Squadron of the Japanese Combined Fleet. Her first taste of major action was at The Battle of Ulsan on 14th August 1904, where she formed part of a cruiser squadron that engaged three Russian armoured cruisers attempting to return to Vladivostok. Although hit twenty times and suffering two killed and seventeen wounded, the ship was not seriously damaged, in a lively action that resulted in the sinking of the Russian cruiser Rurik and heavy damage to her companions. At the Battle of Tsushima the following May, Izumo played her part in Admiral Togo’s crushing defeat of the Imperial Russian Navy, which resulted in the loss of 40 ships and almost 10,000 men. Once again, the cruiser escaped serious damage, although 34 crewmen were killed as a result of Russian shellfire.
Although Japan declared war on Germany as early as 23rd August 1914, Japanese naval operations against the Axis powers were limited. Early in the war, Izumo took part in the hunt for the escaped German gunboat SMS Geier and helped enforce her internment in Hawaii. In June 1917, the ship was assigned as flagship of the Second Special Mission Squadron operating out of Malta, a key duty of which was to provide escort for allied troopships. After the surrender of the German High Sea Fleet, Izumo was despatched to Scapa Flo, where she oversaw the transfer of seven surrendered German U-boats to Japanese sovereignty.
Armoured cruisers proved to be extremely vulnerable during the Great War in surface actions as well as to underwater attack, and as a result the majority were scrapped in the early 1920s. The IJN chose to retain the Izumo Class, however, re-rating them as ‘first class coast defence ships’. Following the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty, Japan was obliged to reduce the fighting capacity of these two ships. This was achieved in part by cutting the number of boilers, thereby reducing their speed to a substandard 16kts. In August of 1921, Izumo was assigned to the navy’s peacetime training fleet, which she remained part of for the next decade, often serving as flagship. The ship suffered the loss of more crewmen in 1924 while on a goodwill tour of North America. Entering Vancouver port at night on 7th February, the cruiser’s steam launch collided with a tugboat, which led to the drowning of eleven enlisted men.
Bow Creek to Anatahan 