Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga
Kaga after her modernization, with her distinctive downward-facing funnel
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators: |
 Imperial Japanese Navy
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| Preceded by: | Akagi |
| Succeeded by: | Ryūjō |
| Built: | 1920–28 |
| In service: | 1928–42 |
| In commission: | 1928–42 |
| Completed: | 1 |
| Lost: | 1 |
| History | |
 Empire of Japan
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| Name: | Kaga |
| Namesake: | Kaga Province |
| Builder: | Kawasaki and Yokosuka Naval Arsenal |
| Cost: | ¥53 million ($36.45 million) |
| Laid down: | 19 July 1920 |
| Launched: | 17 November 1921 |
| Completed: | 31 March 1928 |
| Commissioned: | 30 November 1929 |
| Reclassified: | 21 November 1923 as an aircraft carrier |
| Refit: | 20 October 1933 – 25 June 1935 |
| Struck: | 10 August 1942 |
| Fate: | Scuttled after being heavily damaged by a US air attack at the Battle of Midway, 4 June 1942 |
| General characteristics (after 1935 modernization) | |
| Type: | Aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | 38,200 long tons (38,813 t) (standard) |
| Length: | 247.65 m (812 ft 6 in) |
| Beam: | 32.5 m (106 ft 8 in) |
| Draft: | 9.48 m (31 ft 1 in) |
| Installed power: | 127,400 shp (95,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
| Endurance: | 10,000 nmi (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement: | 1,708 (after reconstruction) |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: | |
| Aircraft carried: |
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| Service record | |
| Part of: | |
| Operations: | |
Kaga (加賀?) was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and was named after the former Kaga Province in present-day Ishikawa Prefecture. Originally intended to be one of two Tosa-class battleships, Kaga was converted under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty to an aircraft carrier as the replacement for the battlecruiser Amagi, which had been damaged during the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake. Kaga was rebuilt in 1933–35, increasing her top speed, improving her exhaust systems, and adapting her flight decks to more modern, heavier aircraft.
The ship figured prominently in the development of the IJN's carrier striking force doctrine, which grouped carriers together to give greater mass and concentration to their air power. A revolutionary strategic concept at the time, the employment of the doctrine was crucial in enabling Japan to attain its initial strategic goals during the first six months of the Pacific War.
Kaga's aircraft first supported Japanese troops in China during the Shanghai Incident of 1932 and participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s. With other carriers, she took part in the Pearl Harbor raid in December 1941 and the invasion of Rabaul in the Southwest Pacific in January 1942. The following month her aircraft participated in a combined carrier airstrike on Darwin, Australia, helping secure the conquest of the Dutch East Indies by Japanese forces. She missed the Indian Ocean raid in April as she had to return to Japan for permanent repairs after hitting a reef in February.
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Wikipedia