THOSE PERMANENT INTERESTS IN THE PACIFIC.

Japan's contemporary Navy pays homage to its past.

Hyūga and Ise were the JMSDF's largest ships until Izumo, which was launched in 2013 and commissioned in 2015.

Izumo and its sister-ship, Kaga, are both 813 feet long, and, like the Hyūgas, were helicopter-carriers intended for [antisubmarine] operations.

However, in 2018, after years of speculation, the Japanese government confirmed that it would convert the Izumo-class ships into aircraft carriers and that it would buy 42 F-35Bs with short-takeoff and vertical-landing capability.

United States Marine aviators are working with the Japanese ramping up those carrier operations.