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The Akagi was a distinctive ship with a unique silhouette. When sailors looked out across the sea and saw the Akagi, they noticed a flight deck mounted above an open lower hangar deck. The Akagi was truly one-of-a-kind.
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Her hull was originally laid down in 1920 and completed as a
battle cruiser in 1922. She was to be one of four battle cruisers of the
Amagi-class, which were all named for mountains in Japan. However, after World
War I, the United States had begun to increase its Navy, building more
battleships, battle cruisers, and aircraft carriers. Countries like Japan
responded by building many new warships as well. An agreement between the
United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Japan, known as the “Washington
Naval Treaty”, put a stop to this “arms race”.
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To satisfy the Treaty, Japan had to change the Akagi into a
different kind of warship. They decided to make it an Aircraft Carrier. They
removed the gun turrets and towers and laid three decks on top: a main flight
deck, and two smaller landing decks at each end. However, this design didn’t
work very well, so the two sub-decks were removed and the Main Deck was
extended. In 1927, the new Akagi was ready for the open sea.
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Yamamoto had been the Akagi’s Admiral for all of 1929 before
moving on to more prominent positions within the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Meanwhile, the Akagi took on a greater role with the Navy, too, becoming the
flagship of the Japanese Navy’s First Fleet in early 1941. This new role would
be her most important and it would begin most notably on a morning in early
December. It was a day that would live in infamy.
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