Japanese aircraft carrier Taiyō

	Taiyō at anchor
History
Empire of Japan
Name	Kasuga Maru
Namesake	Kasuga Shrine
Operator	NYK Line)
Builder	Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering, Nagasaki
Laid down	6 January 1940
Launched	19 September 1940
Fate	Transferred to the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941
Namesake	Goshawk
Completed	2 September 1941
Acquired	1941
Renamed	Taiyō (大鷹) (31 August 1942)
Fate	Sunk by the submarine USS Rasher off Cape Bolinao, Luzon, 18 August 1944 18°10′N 120°22′E
General characteristics
Class and type	Taiyō-class escort carrier
Displacement	18,116 t (17,830 long tons) (standard); 20,321 t (20,000 long tons) (normal);
Length	180.2 m (591 ft 4 in) (o/a)
Beam	22.5 m (73 ft 10 in)
Draft	7.7–8.0 m (25.4–26.25 ft)
Installed power	25,200 shp (18,800 kW); 4 × water-tube boilers;
Propulsion	2 × shafts; 2 × Kampon geared steam turbines;
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range	6,500 or 8,500 nmi (12,000 or 15,700 km; 7,500 or 9,800 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement	747
Armament	6 × single 12 cm (4.7 in) AA guns; 4 × twin 25 mm (1.0 in) AA guns;
Aircraft carried	23 (+ 4 spares)

The Japanese aircraft carrier Taiyō (大鷹, "Big Eagle") was the lead ship of her class of three escort carriers. She was originally built as Kasuga Maru (春日丸), the last of three Nitta Maru class of passenger-cargo liners built in Japan during the late 1930s for NYK Line. The ship was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in early 1941 and was converted into an escort carrier. Taiyō was initially used to transport aircraft to distant air bases and for training, but was later used to escort convoys of merchant ships between Japan and Singapore. The ship was torpedoed twice by American submarines with negligible to moderate damage before she was sunk in mid-1944 with heavy loss of life.

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