Qualla: Japanese Cruiser Ashigara

Japanese Cruiser Ashigara: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. In May 1937, a Japanese warship sailed into Portsmouth harbor for the coronation of King George VI. Her crew dined with the Royal Navy, then crossed to Kiel, where Adolf Hitler received her senior officers in Berlin. The ship was Ashigara, a heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and within five years she would be hunting Allied warships through the same waters where she had once been a diplomatic guest. Eight years after that Portsmouth visit, she would lie on the bottom of the Bangka Strait, torpedoed by a Royal Navy submarine, with over 1,300 souls trapped inside her hull.

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Japanese Cruiser Ashigara: Built to the Limit

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Ashigara was the last of four Myoko-class heavy cruisers, approved under Japan's 1922 Fleet Modernization Program to operate within the constraints of the Washington Naval Treaty. The treaty capped cruiser displacement at 10,000 tons, and naval architect Vice Admiral Yuzuru Hirag...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Japanese Cruiser Ashigara: From Diplomacy to Destruction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The 1937 European tour was Ashigara's most peculiar chapter. She departed Yokosuka on April 3, calling at Singapore, Aden, the Suez Canal, and Malta before reaching Portsmouth for the coronation naval review on May 20. From there she sailed to Kiel for German Kriegsmarine Day, wh...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Japanese Cruiser Ashigara: Surigao Strait and the Retreat

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Presumed official USN or IJN photographer, Public domain. By October 1944, Ashigara was assigned to Vice Admiral Kiyohide Shima's force for the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement in history. With Captain Hayao Miura in command, she entered Surigao Strait on October 25 behind Admiral Shoji Nishimura's First Raiding Force ...

Image: Presumed official USN or IJN photographer | Public domain

Japanese Cruiser Ashigara: Trapped in the Strait

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Public domain. On June 7, 1945, Ashigara departed Batavia for Singapore carrying 1,600 troops, escorted by the destroyer Kamikaze. The American submarine Blueback spotted them and radioed their position but could not attack. Two Royal Navy submarines, Trenchant and Stygian, waited at the northe...

Image: National Museum of the U.S. Navy | Public domain