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IJN CHOKAI cruiser
Japanese heavy cruiser model ship

Chōkai was a Takao-class heavy cruiser, armed with ten 20 cm (8 in) guns, four 12 cm (5 in) guns, eight tubes for the Type 93 torpedo, and assorted anti-aircraft guns. Chōkai was designed with the Imperial Japanese Navy strategy of the great "Decisive Battle" in mind, and built in 1932 by Mitsubishi's shipyard in Nagasaki.

Our warship models stand tough and lively. They don't look 'dead' like a plastic toy or boring simple decorative accessory. That art is considered by many more challenging than the task of constructing a warship itself.  A classic left brain/right brain issue...

In July 1942, Chōkai became the new flagship of Vice Admiral Mikawa Gunichi and his Eighth Fleet. On 7 August 1942, with Guadalcanal having been invaded by the Americans, Chōkai headed for the Guadalcanal waters, with Vice Admiral Mikawa aboard. 

In the battle of Savo Island, Vice Admiral Mikawa's squadron of heavy cruisers inflicted a devastating defeat on an Allied squadron, sinking four heavy cruisers (three American and one Australian) and damaging many ships.  Chōkai sustained several hits, disabling her "A" turret and killing 34 men.  Chōkai returned to Rabaul for temporary repairs.  For the rest of the Solomon Islands campaign, Chōkai would fight in an assortment of night battles with the U.S. Navy, sustaining varied, but mostly minor, damage.

In 1944, Chōkai was made the flagship of the Cruiser Division Four comprising Takao, Maya, Atago, and Chōkai.  All four ships took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.  Cruiser Division Four suffered a harrowing submarine attack on 23 October 1944, with the sinking of Maya and Atago, while Takao was left permanently crippled, leaving Chōkai as the only undamaged ship.  Chōkai was then transferred to Cruiser Division Five, where she survived an air attack on 24 October 1944, while the battleship Musashi was sunk.

On the morning of 25 October, Chōkai engaged an American force of escort carriers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts in the Battle off Samar.  During her approach to the US escort carriers, Chōkai was hit amidships, starboard side.  While the 20 lb (9.1 kg) explosive payload of the shell could not pierce the hull, it set off the eight deck-mounted Japanese Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes, which were especially volatile because they contained pure oxygen in addition to their 1,080 lb (490 kg) warheads.  The explosion resulted in such severe damage that it knocked out the rudder and engines, causing Chōkai to drop out of formation. Within minutes, an American aircraft dropped a 500 lb (230 kg) bomb on her forward machinery room.  She was scuttled later that day by torpedoes from the destroyer Fujinami which also rescued some of her crew.  Two days later Fujinami was itself sunk with the loss of all hands, including the Chōkai survivors, which makes Chōkai one of the largest vessels to be sunk with all hands aboard during World War II.  This is also one of the deepest shipwrecks, at a depth of approximately 8100 meters (26,600 ft), having sunken directly on waters believed to be within the Philippine Deep in Mindanao.