Mutsu(陸奥) was a Nagato Class Battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during the years of 1918 to 1921. This class was designed and built to be two of the Eight modern Battleships in Japans Eight-Eight Fleet Plan (Japans doctrine for maintaining Naval superiority over any nation). There were 2 Nagato Class Battleships built, none survived World War II.

Mutsu served between the years of 1921 to 1943

Preceded by: Ise class

Succeeded by: Tosa class (planned) 

Yamato class (actual)

Mutsu was commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy on the 24th of October, 1921, and almost suffered the ill fate of slated to be scrapped in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty. Japan however managed to save her from this.

Mutsu fired her guns in hostility for the first time on August 24th 1937 in support of the troops she carried to Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

On December 8th, 1941 Mutsu also sailed with Battlship Division 2, Nagato and light carrier Hōshō as distant support for the attack on Pearl Harbor (Hawaii Operation/Operation AI).

Mutsu was also present at Wake Island, but saw no action. Many of the survivors from the lost 4 Japanese Aircraft Carriers were transferred to Mutsu.

During the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 27 August, Mutsu, assigned to the support force,fired four shells at enemy reconnaissance aircraft during what was her first and only time her guns were fired in anger during the war. 

8 Jun 1943 Mutsu was moored at BD2's flagship buoy No. 2 between Hashirajima and the Suo-Oshima islands. She had 1,321 crew onboard, aswell as 113 flying cadets and 40 instructors of the Tsuchiura Naval Air Group. 

At about 1145 hours, she began to move from the buoy, as her sister ship Nagato, from Kure to the north, was scheduled to take over that spot at 1300 hours. At 1213, about half an hour after she began to move from one buoy to another and was at about three kilometers north of Oshima Island, her No. 3 turret and No. 4 turret magazines exploded in very close succession, sending reddish brown smoke up in the air, with the color indicative of the detonation of ammunition. 

Captain Nobumichi Tsuruoka reported the explosion to flag officers, with a coded simple message "Mutsu blew up". The explosion ripped her hull into two parts; the 150-meter forward section rolled to starboard and sank upside down in about 30 seconds, while the aft section remained afloat until about 0200 hours on the next day when it sank on near even keel.