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The were a pair of dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War I. Both patrolled briefly off the coast of China before being placed in reserve at the war's end. In 1922 became the first battleship in the IJN to successfully launch aircraft. During the 1930s, both ships underwent a series of modernizations and reconstructions. underwent her modernization in two phases (1930–33, 1937–41), while ''Yamashiro'' was reconstructed from 1930 to 1935. The modernization increased their armor, replaced and upgraded their machinery, and rebuilt their superstructures into the distinctive pagoda mast style. Despite the expensive reconstructions, both vessels were considered obsolescent by the eve of World War II, and neither saw significant action in the early years of the war. ''Fusō'' served as a troop transport in 1943, while ''Yamashiro'' was relegated to training duty in the Inland Sea. Both underwent upgrades to their anti-aircraft suite in 1944 before transferring to Singapore in August 1944. ''Fusō'' and ''Yamashiro'' were the only two Japanese battleships at the Battle of Surigao Strait, the southernmost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and both were lost in the early hours of 25 October 1944 to torpedoes and naval gunfire. Some eyewitnesses later claimed that ''Fusō'' broke in half, and that both halves remained afloat and burning for an hour, but historian Anthony Tully has made the case that she simply sank after forty minutes of flooding. Six battleships and eight cruisers were lying in wait for ''Yamashiro''; she did not survive the encounter, and Vice-Admiral Shōji Nishimura went down with his ship. Only ten crewmembers from each ship survived. ==Background== The design of the ''Fusō''-class battleships was shaped both by the ongoing international naval arms race and a desire among Japanese naval planners to maintain a fleet of capital ships powerful enough to defeat the United States Navy in an encounter in Japanese territorial waters.〔Stille, p. 4〕 The IJN's fleet of battleships had proven highly successful in 1905, the last year of the Russo-Japanese War, which culminated in the destruction of the Russian Second and Third Pacific Squadrons at the Battle of Tsushima.〔Evans & Peattie, p. 124〕 In the aftermath, the Japanese Empire immediately turned its focus to the two remaining rivals for imperial dominance in the Pacific Ocean: Britain and the United States.〔 Satō Tetsutarō, a Japanese Navy admiral and military theorist, speculated that conflict would inevitably arise between Japan and at least one of its two main rivals. To that end, he called for the Japanese Navy to maintain a fleet with at least 70% as many capital ships as the US Navy.〔Evans & Peattie, p. 143〕 This ratio, Satō theorized, would enable the Imperial Japanese Navy to defeat the US Navy in one major battle in Japanese waters in any eventual conflict.〔 Accordingly, the 1907 Imperial Defense Policy called for the construction of a battle fleet of eight modern battleships, each, and eight modern armored cruisers, each.〔Evans & Peattie, p. 150〕 This was the genesis of the Eight-Eight Fleet Program, the development of a cohesive battle line of sixteen capital ships.〔Stille, p. 7〕 The launch of in 1906 by the Royal Navy raised the stakes,〔Evans & Peattie, p. 152〕 and complicated Japan's plans. Displacing and armed with ten guns, ''Dreadnought'' rendered all existing battleships obsolete by comparison.〔Sandler, p. 90〕 The launch of the battlecruiser the following year was a further setback for Japan's quest for parity.〔Evans & Peattie, p. 154〕 When the two new s and two armored cruisers, launched by 1911, were outclassed by their British counterparts, the Eight-Eight Fleet Program was restarted.〔Evans & Peattie, p. 159〕 The first battleships built for the renewed Eight-Eight Fleet Program were the two dreadnoughts of the , ordered in 1907 and laid down in 1908. In 1910, the Navy put forward a request to the Diet (parliament) to secure funding for the entirety of the program at once. Because of economic constraints, the proposal was cut first by the Navy Ministry to seven battleships and three battlecruisers, then by the cabinet to four armored cruisers and a single battleship. The Diet amended this by authorizing the construction of four battlecruisers (the ) and one battleship, later named ''Fusō'', in what became the Naval Emergency Expansion bill.〔Evans & Peattie, p. 160〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fusō-class battleship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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