Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy is the navy of the Japanese Empire.

Ships

The following ship classes, or their successor designs of similar appearances, serve in the IJN in the 1960s:

• Yamato-Class Battleship
• Taihō-Class Armored Aircraft Carrier
• Mogami or Ibuki-Class Heavy Cruiser
• Former US Navy Gleaves-Class Destroyer (or Asakaze-Class Destroyer transferred from the US Navy in our world)
• Kamikawa Maru-Class Cargo Ship or Seaplane Tender
• Kashino-Class Ammunition Ship

Extensive modernization on these supposed WWII-era ships can be seen, including modernized radar equipment, helicopter pads, angled decks, coaxial rotor helicopters and carrier-based jet aircraft. According to the map in the bridge of the flagship in San Francisco, several other battle-groups centered on the Yamato-class battleships were also deployed across the globe. From this map it seems that even older warships still serve in the IJN (e.g. pieces vaguely resembling a Nagato or Kongo-Class Battleship and a Taigei-Class Submarine Tender). Destroyers with clearly American designs, possibly captured during the war or built locally under Japanese rule, can be seen sailing alongside Yamato. The deployment of old and captured/colony-built warships suggests that the IJN is spread thin across the Pacific Ocean and likely technologically out-competed by its potential opponent, the German Kriegsmarine.

Notable Members

• Grand Admiral Inokuchi

Gallery

IJN fleet sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay

Maritime helicopter of the Imperial Navy.

Top view of a Japanese Yamato-class battleship

The Navy staff

Sailors of the Imperial Navy at attention

Japanese Navy Admiral

Worm's-eye view of the bridge of an IJN warship

Tagomi and Kido strolling aboard an IJN warship

A map depicting the naval deployments of the Imperial Japanese Navy

Notes & Trivia

• The character Admiral Inokuchi is likely named after Vice-Admiral Toshihira Inoguchi (incorrectly romanised as Inokuchi in some sources), the last captain of the real-life battleship Musashi, the second ship of the Yamato-class battleships. In our world, Vice-Admiral Inoguchi went down with the Musashi in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. 
• The world map in the flagship include borders that would be unlikely to exist in the series' timeline, notably the border of North and South Korea (Military Demarcation Line), and modern-day Mongolia and Israel. In addition, Germany's border in this map is that of the Weimar Republic era. 
• In the Bikini Atoll nuclear testing film shown in Berlin, the battleship Nagato is clearly visible near the blast. Nagato as a long-serving flagship of IJN and the most popular battleship in Japan (due to the secret construction and commission of Yamato) would be unlikely to be used as a target ship in the series' version of Japan.