Descriptive material (via Deborah Ann Davis):
On October 19, 1945, American soldiers boarded the Japanese aircraft carrier Jun'yō at Sasebo, Japan, photographing a once-powerful warship that had survived some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific but would never sail again.
The photographs, taken by the U.S. Army, show soldiers of the 32nd Infantry Division exploring the carrier's flight deck and examining her island and radar equipment. In one image, a Japanese crew member signals an approaching tug.
Jun'yō had begun life as the passenger liner Kashiwara Maru, but was taken over by the Imperial Japanese Navy while still under construction and converted into an aircraft carrier. Commissioned in May 1942, she carried approximately 50 aircraft and participated in major Pacific campaigns, including the Aleutian Islands operation, the Guadalcanal campaign, and the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
She was fortunate to survive the war.
On December 9, 1944, while returning to Japan, Jun'yō was torpedoed by American submarines USS Sea Devil (SS-400), USS Plaice (SS-390), and USS Redfish (SS-395). The attack severely damaged her bow and machinery spaces, killing 19 crewmen. Despite the damage, she managed to reach Sasebo the following day.
Repairs began, but Japan's deteriorating industrial situation made restoring the carrier increasingly impractical. By March 1945, work had been abandoned. The immobilized ship was moved to a sheltered anchorage and camouflaged against American air attacks.
When Japan surrendered in August, Jun'yō was still at Sasebo, stripped of much of her military usefulness and incapable of returning to sea. Although some surviving Japanese warships were subsequently disarmed and pressed into service repatriating Japanese military personnel and civilians from overseas, Jun'yō was in no condition to join them.
On October 8, 1945, an American technical inspection team examined the carrier and declared her a constructive total loss. Eleven days later, American soldiers photographed the vessel, documenting the condition of one of Japan's few surviving fleet carriers.
Jun'yō was officially stricken from the Japanese naval register on November 30, 1945. Scrapping began at Sasebo in June 1946 and continued until August 1947.
