The combat activities of Japanese heavy cruisers during the war in the Pacific Ocean were distinguished by an unusually wide range of tasks solved with their help. It is unlikely that any other ships of the Imperial Japanese, or any other, fleet participated in the same large number of operations, often ending in fierce battles. It is difficult to even imagine how much less interesting the history of the Second World War at sea would be for a modern reader if it did not consider events in one way or another connected with Japanese heavy cruisers. Created and perfectly prepared for surface naval combat, they fully justified the funds and efforts invested in them, being powerless only against carrier-based aircraft and submarines that were rapidly gaining power during the war, which to this day remain, perhaps, the most effective naval tactical weapon. which at one time signed the verdict on all large artillery ships.