Katsuragi (葛城) was the third and final Unryū-class aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy built during World War II.

The ship was badly damaged in a July 1945 airstrike by American carrier aircraft on Kure Naval Base.

Repaired after the end of the war, Katsuragi was then used as a repatriation transport for a number of months, bringing Japanese soldiers and civilians back to Japan from overseas locations.

The last purpose-built Japanese carrier construction during World War II was a group of vessels based on an improved Hiryū design, but with individual units differing in detail reflecting the changing circumstances as the conflict in the Pacific approached its conclusion.

A small island was mounted well forward on the starboard side and contained the ship's bridge and air operations control center.

The ship mounted a retractable crane on the starboard side of the flight deck, just aft of the rear elevator.

Katsuragi's hangars could not accommodate so many aircraft so eleven planes were planned to be permanently carried on the flight deck.

In 1943 the air group was revised to consist of 18 Mitsubishi A7M "Sam" fighters (+2 in storage), 27 Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" dive bombers and six Nakajima C6N "Myrt" reconnaissance aircraft.

When the ship commissioned in 1944, neither the A7M nor the C6Ns were yet in service, so the air group was reconfigured to consist of 27 Zeros, 12 D4Ys, three of which were to be the reconnaissance version, and nine Nakajima B6N "Jill" torpedo bombers.

By this time, however, the shortage of carrier-qualified aircrew was such that they were ordered to operate from shore bases and Katsuragi never embarked her air group.

[9] The ship's primary armament consisted of a dozen 40-caliber 12.7 cm Type 89 anti-aircraft (AA) guns in twin mounts.

In addition, a Type 14 early warning radar, ordinarily land-based, was mounted for trials aboard ship.

[12] The ship was transferred among a number of ports on the Inland Sea until she arrived in Kure on 15 February 1945 and she was ordered to be camouflaged.

Her flight deck was disguised with fake trees, houses and roads; however, her anti-aircraft batteries remained fully manned.

[13] Aircraft from USN Task Force 38 attacked the ship on 24 July as part of a major raid on Kure and the Inland Sea, but she was only hit once.

A second raid on 28 July did far more damage to the ship as a 2,000-pound (910 kg) bomb penetrated the flight deck and detonated in the upper hangar, between the elevators.

[13] The damage from the July attack was only repaired enough to allow the hangar deck to house some 5,000 returning soldiers and civilians and the ship began her first voyage outside Japanese waters on 19 December.