Asahi (朝日, Morning Sun) was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s.

In 1938, she was converted into a repair ship and based first at Japanese-occupied Shanghai, China, and then Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, from late 1938 to 1941.

Combat experience in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 convinced the Imperial Japanese Navy of weaknesses in the Jeune École naval philosophy, which emphasized torpedo boats and commerce raiding to offset expensive heavily armoured ships.

Therefore, Japan promulgated a ten-year naval build-up in early 1896, to modernize and expand its fleet in preparation for further confrontations, with the construction of six battleships and six armoured cruisers at its core.

[9] She carried a maximum of 2,000 long tons (2,032 t) of coal which allowed her to steam for 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

[10] Asahi's main battery consisted of the same four Elswick Ordnance Company 40-calibre twelve-inch guns used in all of Japan's preceding battleships.

[5] Asahi, like all the other Japanese battleships of the time, was fitted with four Barr and Stroud FA3 coincidence rangefinders that had an effective range of 8,000 yards (7,300 m).

Her completion was delayed by about three months when her bottom plating required repairs after running aground off Southsea following sea trials.

Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal defences with his main armament and engage the ships with his secondary guns.

Although many ships on both sides were hit, Russian casualties numbered only 17, while the Japanese suffered 60 killed and wounded before Tōgō disengaged.

[23] The ship participated in the action of 13 April, when Tōgō successfully lured out a portion of the Pacific Squadron, including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov's flagship, the battleship Petropavlovsk.

When Makarov spotted the five battleships of the 1st Division, he turned back for Port Arthur and Petropavlovsk struck a minefield laid by the Japanese the previous night.

Emboldened by his success, Tōgō resumed long-range bombardment missions, prompting the Russians to lay more minefields, which sank two Japanese battleships the following month.

[24] During the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August, Asahi, now commanded by Captain Tsunaakira Nomoto, was second in line of the column of Japanese battleships, behind Mikasa, and was one of the primary targets of the Russian ships.

In turn she concentrated most of her fire upon the battleships Poltava and Tsesarevich although both ships were only lightly damaged by the Japanese shells, which generally failed to penetrate any armour and detonated on impact.

The second-in-command, Rear Admiral Prince Pavel Ukhtomsky, eventually gained control of the remainder of the squadron and headed back to Port Arthur.

Mikasa opened fire at the battleship Knyaz Suvorov, the Russian flagship, at 14:10, and was joined by Asahi and the armoured cruiser Azuma shortly afterwards.

Knyaz Suvorov's steering was later repaired, but she blundered between the Japanese and Russian fleets several times later in the battle and was heavily damaged.

[28] Captain W. C. Pakenham, the Royal Navy's official military observer under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, took notes of the battle's progress from a deck chair on Asahi's exposed quarterdeck.

Asahi was reclassified as a first-class coastal defence ship on 1 September 1921,[4][29] and began disarmament in 1922 at Yokosuka in compliance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.

Asahi was fitted with a dummy wooden main battery fore and aft to resemble an old battleship after her arrival in Shanghai on 29 December.

[3] From 13 March 1942, Asahi was stationed at Singapore, and in April her crew performed repairs on the light cruiser Naka, which had been torpedoed by the submarine USS Seawolf off Christmas Island.

Departing Singapore for Kure on 22 May, escorted by the subchaser CH-9, Asahi was sighted by the submarine USS Salmon on the night of 25/26 May 1942, 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Cape Padaran, Indochina.