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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Photo # NH 73014:  Japanese heavy cruiser Kako underway during exercises, 1940

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- JAPANESE NAVY SHIPS --

Kako (Cruiser, 1926-1942)

Kako, a 7100-ton Furutaka class heavy cruiser built at Kobe, Japan, was commissioned in July 1926. Assigned to the Fifth Squadron (Sentai) from then until 1933, she served in Japanese and Chinese waters, participating in fleet maneuvers and combat operations in China. The cruiser was given a major refit in 1929-30, improving her machinery and slightly changing her appearance. Briefly operating with Sentai 6 in 1933, Kako was present for the naval review off Yokohama in late August. She went into guard ship status in November of that year and into reserve in 1934. In July 1936, she began an extensive reconstruction at Sasebo.

Kako returned to service in December 1937 almost completely transformed. Her original six 200mm single gun mounts had been replaced by three twin 203mm gun turrets. She now had new anti-aircraft machine guns and torpedo tubes, improved gunfire control equipment, different boilers, a wider hull and a generally altered appearance. Reassigned to Sentai 6, she operated in Japanese home waters and off China in the years leading up to the Pacific war.

When Japan attacked U.S. and British positions in December 1941, Kako took part in the assaults on Guam and Wake. In March and April 1942, she supported operations against New Guinea, the northern Solomon Islands and the Admiralty Islands. In early May she covered landings at Tulagi, in the southern Solomons, and escorted the carrier Shoho and the Port Moresby invasion force during the Battle of the Coral Sea on 7-8 May. After being overhauled at Kure in May and June, Kako was sent to the vicinity of the northern Solomon Islands. When U.S. Marines invaded Guadalcanal and Tulagi on 7 August 1942, she was one of seven Japanese cruisers ordered south to intervene. In the 9 August night Battle of Savo Island, these ships inflicted a serious defeat on a joint U.S.-Australian task force. While steaming toward Kavieng, New Ireland, on 10 August 1942, Kako was torpedoed and sunk by the U.S. submarine S-44 (SS-155).

This page features all our images related to the Japanese cruiser Kako.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 48204

Kako
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Photograph taken in April 1926, as the ship was beginning her trials.
Note the weathered appearance of her paint.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 560 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97692

Kako
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Photograph taken in 1926, showing the ship as first completed with short smokestacks.

The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 45KB; 740 x 305 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42261

Kako
(Japanese Light Cruiser, 1926)

Letterpress reproduction, printed on a postal card, of a photograph of the ship in her original configuration, with short smokestacks, possibly taken during her trials in mid-1926.
The 1929 edition of "Jane's Fighting Ships" published this view as representing Furutaka, sister ship of Kako, but steampipe locations on the forward smokestack indicate that this ship really is Kako. Despite the printed caption on the original postal card, this view looks nothing like Aoba and Kinugasa.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 105KB; 740 x 480 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97694

Kako
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Photograph taken in 1926, showing the ship as first completed with short smokestacks.

Collection of Captain Roger Pineau, USNR.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 520 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97701

Kako
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Underway in Tokyo Bay, Japan, in 1928.
Kako was then the third unit of the Fifth Sentai (squadron), as indicated by the three equal-sized bands painted on her after smokestack.

The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 345 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97693

Kako
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Photograph taken in 1927-30, when Kako was the third unit of the Fifth Sentai (squadron), as indicated by the three equal-sized bands painted on her after smokestack.

The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 37KB; 740 x 255 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 73014

Kako
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1926)

Underway during exercises in 1940, with her forward gun turrets trained out to port, as seen from another Japanese warship.

Donation of Kazutoshi Hando, 1970.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 86308

Kako
and Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruisers, 1926) -- upper drawings;
and
Aoba
(Japanese Heavy Cruiser, 1927) -- lower drawing

World War II era recognition drawings, showing Kako and Furutaka after their late 1930s modernization and Aoba as she was in 1945.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 134KB; 1200 x 850 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97698

Kako
and Furutaka
(Japanese Heavy Cruisers, 1926)

World War II era recognition drawings, showing the ships as they were after their late 1930s modernization.

The original photographic print was taken from Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison's World War II working files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 46KB; 740 x 540 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97699

Furutaka
and Kako
(Japanese Heavy Cruisers, 1926)

World War II era recognition silhouette and deck plan drawing, showing the ships as they were after their late 1930s modernization.

The original photographic print was taken from Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison's World War II working files.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 52KB; 740 x 580 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 26 October 2001