1942 Battle of the Coral Sea opinions

**Danger** · 11-10-2021, 08:42 AM

Hi guys,

I've had this photo for a while now. I trusted the description and took it for granted as fact.
That is until I tried to research the carrier RYUKAKU.
I can't find anything about it anywhere and I believe it just might not exist?
Could it be a mistake by Navy staff?

I have other photos that came with this one of the SHOKAKU getting damaged during the same period. 8th May 1942.
Photo series written up 17th June 1942. Coral Sea Battle.
One of the photos is used online by Wiki.

I only have scraps of what I can find online, and I could be wrong, but I think the photo is of the SHOHO, not RYOKAKU.
The description on the back was written up on the 20th of June 1944 (not that the report date makes a difference), but is labelled as in the series of the Coral sea battle.
That much could be correct.

After researching the carrier classes and profile of the SHOHO, also the date she was sunk, I was only left with a few options.
Then I saw a photo of the SHOHO ablaze, and taking hits online.
The extended Bow, to my eyes, match.
In my photo, the Bow has dropped into the swell, but you can just make it out.
Another thing that matches are the "lines" (oil) or (wake) in the ocean of both photos. Angle of photos are similar too.

Advice and help is needed please. Am I seeing things I want to see?

Thanks,

Danger

**Danger** · 11-10-2021, 08:47 AM

More details.

If this is a photo of the SHOHO, it is worth mentioning she was the first Japanese aircraft carrier to be sunk during World War II.
Sunk by air attack 7th May 1942.

**Nick Komiya** · 11-10-2021, 11:25 AM

According to a Japanese web site titled the Secret of Carrier Ryukaku, you are correct, it is Shoho and carrier Ryukaku never existed. Ryukaku was a name invented by US Intelligence for an unnamed carrier in a Japanese coded message they intercepted and decoded. This was revealed in this book.

The Americans realized this mistake about a month after the battle through captured documents. However, official reports did not seem to get corrected until about a year later. "Battle of the Coral Sea -Combat Narratives" issued by the navy in 1943 does point out that Shoho was referred to as Ryukaku by mistake.

Not only did US Intelligence dream up IJN paratrooper patches that never existed, but even let their imagination invent a new carrier that never existed.