Sōryū (蒼龍, Sōryū, meaning "Blue (or Green) Dragon") was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the mid-1930s. A sister ship, Hiryū, was intended to follow Sōryū, but Hiryū ' s design was heavily modified and she is often considered to be a separate class. Sōryū ' s aircraft were employed in operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War in the late ...

Hiryū (飛龍, "Flying Dragon") was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1930s. Generally regarded as the only ship of her class, she was built to a modified Sōryū design. Her aircraft supported the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in mid-1940. She took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Wake Island.

Taihō (大鳳, "Great Phoenix") was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Possessing heavy belt armor and featuring an armored flight deck (a first for any Japanese aircraft carrier), she represented a major departure from prior Japanese aircraft carrier design and was expected to not only survive multiple bomb, torpedo, or shell hits, but also continue ...

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 …

Kirishima (霧島) was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II.Designed by British naval engineer George Thurston, she was the third launched of the four Kongō-class battlecruisers. Laid down in 1912 at the Mitsubishi Shipyards in Nagasaki, Kirishima was formally commissioned in 1915 on the same day as her sister ship, Haruna.

Akagi (Japanese: 赤城, "red castle") was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), named after Mount Akagi in present-day Gunma Prefecture.Though she was laid down as an Amagi-class battlecruiser, Akagi was converted to an aircraft carrier while still under construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.The ship was rebuilt …

Shōkaku (Japanese: 翔鶴, "Soaring Crane") was the lead ship of her class of two aircraft carriers for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) shortly before the Pacific War.Along with her sister ship Zuikaku, she took part in several key naval battles during the war, including the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands before being …

Shinano (信濃) was an aircraft carrier built by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II, the largest such built up to that time. Laid down in May 1940 as the third of the Yamato-class battleships, Shinano ' s partially complete hull was ordered to be converted to an aircraft carrier following Japan's disastrous loss of four of its original six fleet carriers at the Battle of ...

The word maru (丸, meaning "circle") is often attached to Japanese ship names. The first ship known to follow this practice was the Nippon Maru, flagship of daimyō Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 16th century fleet.. Several theories purport to explain this practice: The most common is that ships were thought of as floating castles, and the word referred to the defensive "circles" or maru that ...

Japanese may refer to: . Something from or related to Japan, an archipelago country in East Asia; Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan; Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture . Japanese diaspora, Japanese emigrants and their descendants around the world; Japanese citizens, nationals of Japan under Japanese …