Ashigara was one of three Japanese cruisers that HMS Birmingham faced down at Tsingtao in January 1939. This was a tense display of naval force rather than a battle. The class also had a tangential connection to events preceding the Asama Maru incident involving HMS Liverpool in January 1940. Together, the examples show that these modern heavy cruisers served as instruments of diplomacy and coercion before becoming wartime combatants.
Notable Point · 33:18-34:16
Myoko-class cruisers in prewar Far East confrontations
Ashigara and other Myoko-class cruisers illustrate how Japanese heavy cruisers exerted peacetime pressure in the Far East before the Pacific War.