Japanese cruiser Izumo

A Japanese postcard of Izumo at Kobe in 1941
History
Empire of Japan
Name	Izumo
Namesake	Izumo Province
Ordered	24 September 1897
Builder	Armstrong Whitworth, United Kingdom
Laid down	14 May 1898
Launched	19 September 1899
Completed	25 September 1900
Reclassified	As 1st class coast-defense ship, 1 September 1921 As 1st class cruiser, 1 July 1942 As training ship, 1943
Stricken	20 November 1945
Fate	Sunk by air attack, 24 July 1945 Scrapped, 1947
General characteristics
Class and type	Izumo-class armored cruiser
Displacement	9,503 t (9,353 long tons)
Length	132.28 m (434 ft 0 in) (o/a)
Beam	20.94 m (68 ft 8 in)
Draft	7.26 m (23 ft 10 in)
Installed power	24 Belleville boilers 14,500 ihp (10,800 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts 2 triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	20.75 knots (38.43 km/h; 23.88 mph)
Range	7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	672
Armament	2 × twin 20.3 cm (8 in) guns 14 × single 6 in (152 mm) guns 12 × single 12-pdr (3 in (76 mm)) guns 8 × single 2.5-pdr (3 in (76 mm)) guns 4 × single 457 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Waterline belt: 89–178 mm (3.5–7.0 in) Deck: 63 mm (2.5 in) Gun Turret: 160 mm (6.3 in) Barbette: 152 mm (6 in) Casemate: 51–152 mm (2–6 in) Conning tower: 356 mm (14 in) Bulkhead: 127 mm (5 in)

Izumo (出雲, sometimes transliterated Idzumo) was the lead ship of her class of armored cruisers (Sōkō jun'yōkan) built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships itself, the ship was built in Britain. She often served as a flagship and participated in most of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. The ship was lightly damaged during the Battle off Ulsan and the Battle of Tsushima. Izumo was ordered to protect Japanese citizens and interests in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution and was still there when World War I began in 1914.

She was then tasked to search for German commerce raiders and protect Allied shipping off the western coasts of North and Central America. The ship assisted the armored cruiser Asama in early 1915 when she struck a rock off Baja California. In 1917, Izumo became the flagship of the Japanese squadron deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. After the war, she sailed to Great Britain to take control of some ex-German submarines and then escorted them part of the way back to Japan.

The ship spent most of the 1920s as a training ship for naval cadets and became flagship of the IJN's China forces in 1932 during the First Shanghai Incident. Izumo participated in the Battle of Shanghai five years later and was not damaged, despite repeated aerial attacks. The ship played a minor role in the Pacific War, supporting Japanese forces during Philippines Campaign until she struck a mine. She returned to Japan in 1943 and again became a training ship for naval cadets. Izumo was sunk by American carrier aircraft during the attack on Kure in July 1945. Her wreck was refloated and scrapped in 1947.