Imperial Japanese Navy of World War II

The Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II, at the beginning of the Pacific War in December 1941, was the third most powerful navy in the world. During the first years of the war the Imperial Japanese Navy dominated the Western Pacific. However, after a series of defeats it lost control of the Western Pacific and collapsed by the end of the war. The naval air service was one of the most potent air forces in the world before its destruction in World War II.

Japan continued to attribute considerable prestige to battleships (戦艦　Senkan) and endeavoured to build the largest and most powerful ships of the period. Yamato, the heaviest and most heavily armed battleship in history, was launched in 1941.

The second half of World War II saw the last battleship duels. In the Battle of Guadalcanal on 15 November 1942, the U.S. battleships USS South Dakota and Washington fought and destroyed the Japanese battleship Kirishima, but only after South Dakota had sustained heavy damage. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf on 25 October 1944 six battleships, led by Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf of the U.S. 7th Fleet, fired upon and claimed credit for sinking Vice Admiral Shoji Nishimura's battleships Yamashiro and Fusō during the Battle of Surigao Strait; in fact, both battleships were fatally crippled by destroyer attacks before being brought under fire by Oldendorf's battleships, and probably only Yamashiro was the target of their fire.

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