World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseJunyo began her life as the civilian passenger liner Kashiwara Maru, but due to war demands, she was taken over by the Japanese Navy in 1940 while still on the shipways. In May 1942, she was completed as a carrier, and by the following month was dispatched to support the attack on the Aleutian Islands in the northern Pacific Ocean, striking Dutch Harbor at Unalaska Island. Captain Okada Tametsugu assumed command on 20 Jul 1942. In late Oct 1942, during the Guadalcanal Campaign, Junyo took part in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, in which battle her aircraft attacked American carrier Enterprise, battleship South Dakota, and light cruiser San Juan, causing damage against the latter two warships. In mid-Nov 1942, she played a covering role in the First and Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. In the following Spring, her planes were sent to Rabaul, New Britain for land-based attacks on the Allied forces gathering at Guadalcanal. In Jun 1943, she escorted an important convoy sent to reinforce the Japanese garrison on Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. On 5 Nov 1943, near Bungo Suido off Japan, she was hit by a torpedo from the American submarine Halibut, killing four crewmen; she was repaired at Kure, Japan. In Jun 1944, she participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea under the command of Captain Shibuya Kiyomi, in which the Japanese Navy's air strength was critically weakened; in that battle, she was hit by two bombs at about 1730, damaging her smokestack, mast, and flight deck, requiring her to receive repairs once again at Kure. While off southern Japan on 9 Dec 1944 with 200 survivors of battleship Musashi on board, Junyo was attacked by an American submarine team consisted of Sea Devil, Redfish, and Plaice; the former two scored torpedo hits on her, killing 19 men. She made it to Kure on her own power, but due to the lack of aircraft and pilots, she was not repaired. At the end of the war, she was scrapped at Sasebo, Japan in 1947.

Photographs

Junyo Operational Timeline