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The Americans

USS CABOT
(CVL-28)

USS ESSEX
(CV-9)

USS HANCOCK
(CV-19)

USS INTREPID
(CV-11)

 

The Japanese

The Kamikazes

A6M Zero

D4Y SUISEI

IJN Kumano

IJN Yasoshima

 

Narrated By

Marvin Scott

 

Historical Advisor

Michael Marmé, PH.D.
Fordham University,
New YORK, NY

 

REcommended links

World War II
Multimedia Database

Nine Sisters

 

Imperial Japanese Navy Cruiser Yasoshima

IJN Yasoshima was escorting three landing ships and a transport when she was attacked by aircraft from USS Langley (CVL-27) and USS Ticonderoga (CV-14). Originally a Chinese cruiser built with Japanese and German help and sunk during the Sino-Japanese War in 1938, she was raised, brought to Japan, and converted into an escort cruiser in June 1944. Only five months later she was sent to the bottom by Task Force 38 aircraft.

IJN Yasoshima Links

Photos of IJN Yasoshima

IJN Kumano

IJN Yasoshima Specifications

Laid down:	July 9, 1931
Launched:	September 29, 1935 (China)
Completed:	June 18, 1936 (China) June 1944 (Japan)
Fate:	Sunk, Nanking, China 1938 Sunk, Luzon, Philippines November 25,1944
Displacement:	2,500 tons
Length:	106.68 meters (350 feet)
Beam:	29 feet
Draft:	13 feet 6 inches
Armor:	1" deck
Machinery:	two turbines
Power:	9500 SHP
Speed:	22 knots
Complement:	350 Officers and Men
Armament:	6 x 5” D.P. 6 x 3” A.A. 8 x 25mm anti-aircraft 4 x 21” torpedo tubes
Class:	Ning Hai (Chinese)

Captured in China, Pressed into Service as an Escort

Yasoshima, a 2200-ton (standard displacement) escort vessel, was built at Shanghai, China, as the Chinese Navy's cruiser Ping Hai. Of Japanese design, and fitted with guns and much other equipment from that nation, her construction was delayed by strife between Japan and China in 1931 and 1932, but was resumed later. She was completed in June 1936. In August of the next year, after full-scale war began with Japan, Ping Hai was sent up the Yangtse River as part of the defenses of Nanking, China's capital city. While on this duty on September 22-23,1937 she was attacked by aircraft from the aircraft carrier Kaga and sunk in shallow water.

The Japanese raised Ping Hai's wreck in 1938 and towed her to Sasebo, Japan, where she remained until the beginning of 1944. Her only employment during this time was as an accommodation hulk. However, the critical need for escort vessels to defend Japan's shipping against U.S. submarines caused her reconstruction for active service between January and June 1944. Renamed Yasoshima and placed in commission in the latter month, she performed escort service during July and August. In September she was reclassified as a second class cruiser and began conversion for use as a flagship. Upon completion of this work in mid-November she was sent to the Philippines. On November 25, 1944, while steaming off the western coast of Luzon in company with three transport vessels, Yasoshima was attacked and sunk by planes from U.S. Third Fleet aircraft carriers.