Front view of Junyo
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The Junyo was the name ship of the Junyo class of aircraft carriers, two slow medium sized fleet carriers that were built on hulls that had been laid down as large passenger liners, and was one of the small number of Japanese carriers to survive the Second World War.
The Junyo’s first operational service came the month after she was completed. In the operations that ended with the battle of Midway (June 1942) she was one of two carriers sent north to raid Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands.
She took part in the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands (October 1942), which resulted from an attempt to get reinforcements onto Guadalcanal. Although the Junyo was herself undamaged, her aircrews suffered heavy losses in the attacks that sank the USS Hornet.
In November 1943 the Junyo was torpedoed by an American submarine close to the Japanese coast, and was towed to safety. She was repaired in time to take part in the battle of the Philippine Sea (June 1944), where she made up part of Rear-Admiral T. Joshima’s B Force. On 20 June she suffered two bomb hits close to the island, but once again survived.
The Junyo was then used to transport urgently needed items to the Philippines. After the second of these trips she was once against torpedoed by an American submarine, and once again made it back to Japan, but by this point the resources to repair her no longer existed. She survived in her damaged state until the end of the war, and was then surrendered and scraped.
Displacement (standard) |
24,140t |
Displacement (loaded) |
28,300t |
Top Speed |
25.5kts |
Range |
10,000nm |
Aircraft |
53 |
Length |
719ft 6in max |
Armaments |
12 5in/40 Dual Purpose guns in double mountings |
Crew complement |
1187-1224 |
Launched |
26 June 1941 |
Completed |
5 May 1942 |
Broken up |
1947 |
