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Description
HIJMS Asahi (morning/rising sun) was a unique Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) battleship. She was ordered in 1897 and built by John Brown & Co. of Clydebank (Glasgow/Dunbartonshire, Scotland). Like her close cousin HIJMS Mikasa, Asahi was based on the British Royal Navy Formidable-class battleship, but was slightly different. She was protected by belts of case-hardened Harvey steel armor, and was armed with four Armstrong-Whitworth 12-inch naval guns in two turrets, as well as a mixture of forty-six smaller guns and four torpedo tubes. Asahi was commissioned on April 28, 1900, which was almost 115 years and a week ago.

HIJMS Asahi was the flagship of the IJN Standing Fleet, and saw extensive combat use during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. During the August 10 Battle of the Yellow Sea, she fired on the Russian battleships Poltava and Tsesarevich, killing Admiral Wilhelm Withöft and forcing Rear Admiral Pavel Ukhtomsky to retreat to Port Arthur. After hitting a mine on October 26, 1904, Asahi had to be repaired at Sasebo in Kyushu, though the repairs were completed in time for the Battle of Tsushima.

During the battle of May 27-28, 1905, British captain W.C. Pakenham observed the victory of the Japanese empire over the Russian empire from the quarterdeck of HIJMS Asahi. The battleship followed Admiral Togo's flagship HIJMS Mikasa, and was the second ship to hit Admiral Zinoviy Rozhdestvensky's flagship Knyaz Suvorov. Asahi spent most of the battle duelling Borodino, which sank after an explosion, and Orel, which surrendered. She fired 142 shells, the most of any Japanese battleship, and took six non-critical hits.

After the Russo-Japanese War, HIJMS Asahi escorted the U.S. Navy's Great White Fleet around Japan in 1908, and spent World War I as a gunnery training ship. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, she was part of the anti-Communist Siberian Intervention, guarding Kamchatka for most of 1918. She was briefly assigned to coastal defense before being disarmed to comply with the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, and was later used as a submarine salvage ship, repair ship, and troop transport during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.

In March 1942, HIJMS Asahi was assigned to Singapore, where she repaired the damaged cruiser Naka after an attack by USS Seawolf. The old battleship's final mission was a transfer to Kure on May 22, during which she was escorted by sub-chaser CH-9. CH-9 failed in its role, as Asahi was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Salmon (SS-182) and sunk off the coast of Vietnam on May 26. Sixteen sailors perished, while the captain and 582 sailors were rescued by CH-9.

This waterline model of HIJMS Asahi is on display at the Battleship Mikasa memorial museum in Yokosuka.

Description
HIJMS Asahi (morning/rising sun) was a unique Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) battleship. She was ordered in 1897 and built by John Brown & Co. of Clydebank (Glasgow/Dunbartonshire, Scotland). Like her close cousin HIJMS Mikasa, Asahi was based on the British Royal Navy Formidable-class battleship, but was slightly different. She was protected by belts of case-hardened Harvey steel armor, and was armed with four Armstrong-Whitworth 12-inch naval guns in two turrets, as well as a mixture of forty-six smaller guns and four torpedo tubes. Asahi was commissioned on April 28, 1900, which was almost 115 years and a week ago.

HIJMS Asahi was the flagship of the IJN Standing Fleet, and saw extensive combat use during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. During the August 10 Battle of the Yellow Sea, she fired on the Russian battleships Poltava and Tsesarevich, killing Admiral Wilhelm Withöft and forcing Rear Admiral Pavel Ukhtomsky to retreat to Port Arthur. After hitting a mine on October 26, 1904, Asahi had to be repaired at Sasebo in Kyushu, though the repairs were completed in time for the Battle of Tsushima.

During the battle of May 27-28, 1905, British captain W.C. Pakenham observed the victory of the Japanese empire over the Russian empire from the quarterdeck of HIJMS Asahi. The battleship followed Admiral Togo's flagship HIJMS Mikasa, and was the second ship to hit Admiral Zinoviy Rozhdestvensky's flagship Knyaz Suvorov. Asahi spent most of the battle duelling Borodino, which sank after an explosion, and Orel, which surrendered. She fired 142 shells, the most of any Japanese battleship, and took six non-critical hits.

After the Russo-Japanese War, HIJMS Asahi escorted the U.S. Navy's Great White Fleet around Japan in 1908, and spent World War I as a gunnery training ship. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, she was part of the anti-Communist Siberian Intervention, guarding Kamchatka for most of 1918. She was briefly assigned to coastal defense before being disarmed to comply with the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, and was later used as a submarine salvage ship, repair ship, and troop transport during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.

In March 1942, HIJMS Asahi was assigned to Singapore, where she repaired the damaged cruiser Naka after an attack by USS Seawolf. The old battleship's final mission was a transfer to Kure on May 22, during which she was escorted by sub-chaser CH-9. CH-9 failed in its role, as Asahi was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Salmon (SS-182) and sunk off the coast of Vietnam on May 26. Sixteen sailors perished, while the captain and 582 sailors were rescued by CH-9.

This waterline model of HIJMS Asahi is on display at the Battleship Mikasa memorial museum in Yokosuka.