page_title: USS Indiana (BB-58)
section_title: Operations off Japan
hierarchical_section_title: USS Indiana (BB-58) / Service history / Pacific Theater operations / Operations off Japan
caption_attribution_description: English: NARA Photo #: 80-G-K-6035 (Color) Bombardment of Kamaishi, Japan, 14 July 1945 USS Indiana (BB-58) fires a salvo from her forward 16"/45 guns at the Kamaishi plant of the Japan Iron Company, 250 miles north of Tokyo. A second before, USS South Dakota (BB-57), from which this photograph was taken, fired the initial salvo of the first naval gunfire bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands. The superstructure of USS Massachusetts (BB-59) is visible directly behind Indiana. The heavy cruiser in the left center distance is either USS Quincy (CA-71) or USS Chicago (CA-136) .
context_page_description: USS Indiana (BB-58) was the second of four South Dakota-class fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1930s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, they took advantage of an escalator clause that allowed increasing the main battery to 16-inch guns, but refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of 35,000 long tons. A requirement to be armored against the same caliber of guns as they carried, combined with the displacement restriction, resulted in cramped ships, a problem that was exacerbated as wartime modifications that considerably strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries significantly increased their crews.
  Indiana entered service in April 1942, by which time the United States was engaged in World War II, and the ship was immediately pressed into action in the Pacific War against Japan. Her first combat came in late 1942 when she supported marines fighting during the Guadalcanal campaign.
context_section_description: Indiana got underway again in early July and returned to TF 38. She supported carrier strikes on the Tokyo area on 10 July and took part in the first bombardment of the Japanese home islands by capital ships during the war. For the attack, which took place on 14 July, Indiana was assigned to TU 34.8.1, which included Massachusetts and South Dakota, the heavy cruisers Chicago and Quincy, and nine destroyers. The primary target was an industrial complex in Kamaishi that included the Japan Iron Co. and the Kamaishi Steel Works. Indiana fired 271 shells from her 16-inch guns, but smoke hindered the efforts of her spotter aircraft from observing the effects of the shooting, though a destroyer returned the next day and reported that fires were still burning. Indiana then resumed her anti-aircraft support duties with the fast carrier task force until being detached for another bombardment operation with TU 34.8.1 on 29 July. This attack, made in concert with the British TF 37—centered on the battleship HMS King George V—targeted industrial facilities at Hamamatsu. Indiana fired 270 shells during the bombardment.
  On 1 August, BatDiv 8 was detached to form Support Unit 38.1.2; the ships continued their attacks on coastal cities in company with TF 37. One of Indiana's Kingfishers accidentally crashed in the sea on 7 August, killing its crew. The ships of BatDiv 8 conducted a second attack on Kamaishi on 9 August, with Indiana firing a total of 270 shells between 12:46 and 14:45. Poor visibility again hampered the observers, though this proved to be the ship's last offensive operation. Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally on 15 August while Indiana was en route to the coast to support another wave of carrier strikes. Instead of munitions, food and medical supplies were loaded onto the carriers' aircraft to be dropped on prisoner of war (POW) camps. Indiana contributed a landing party to be sent ashore on 30 August, which was part of the initial occupation forces.
  After the formal surrender on 2 September, Indiana steamed into Tokyo Bay on the 5th. Over the course of the next week, Indiana was moored in the harbor and used to process POWs, including 54 USN personnel, 28 marines, 64 civilians, and a number of US Army and Canadian soldiers. On 15 September, she got underway in company with the destroyer Mansfield, bound for California. She was forced to steam at a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) since her number 3 shaft had locked up and could not be used. On the way, her crew conducted a variety of shooting drills. The two ships reached Pearl Harbor on 22 September before Indiana continued on the next day for San Francisco, which she reached on 29 September. There, she disembarked 1,013 passengers.
caption: USS Indiana bombarding Kamaishi, Japan, 14 July 1945
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