The IJN Mutsu, named after Mutsu Province, was a dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) at the end of World War I. She was the second ship of the Nagato-class. In 1923, a year after commissioning, she carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake. The ship was modernized in 1934–36 with improvements to her armor and machinery, and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style.
Other than participating in the First Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, Mutsu would be transferred to Southeast Asia to deal with the Allied naval forces there. Mutsu was sunk on November 15th 1942 at the Battle of the Java Sea when the uncontrolled Nagato collided with her while she was in the middle of a turn.[1]
The navy dispersed the survivors in an attempt to conceal the sinking in the interest of morale in Japan, continuing even to pay the salaries of the dead men. Much of the wreck was salvaged after the war and many artifacts and relics are on display in West Japan.