George Gerolimatos wrote:Hi again,
there is a fantastic website out there on the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). You can find it at combinedfleet.com. As to your question, no, Japanese carriers were not normally named after provinces. The only exceptions were those ships originally laid down as battlecruiser, i.e., Akagi (her name means "Red Castle"), Kaga, and Shinano. In other cases, Japanese carriers were named after mythical flying creatures. Soryu means "blue dragon", Hiryu "flying dragon" and so on. Isn't this so much cooler than calling a carrier Wasp or Hornet?! Cruisers were named after mountains, light cruisers for rivers, and destroyers after weather conditions. I'm biased, but the Japanese knew how to infuse war and poetry together!
George G.
BBs and BCs were named after provinces, Kaga, Shinano, Nagato, Kongo, Musashi, etc are all provinces in Japan. There are provinces in Japan called Satsuma, Bingo and Bitchu, they would be interesting names for Battleships