The Shinano (Japanese 信濃), originally begun in 1940 as the third Japanese battleship of the Yamato class, was completed as an aircraft carrier in 1944. She was named after the historic province of Shinano. However, as early as November 1944 - before her first deployment - the ship was torpedoed and sunk by a U.S. submarine while on a transfer trip off the Japanese coast. The Shinano was by far the largest completed aircraft carrier of World War II.

To escape the United States' air attacks, which were becoming increasingly dangerous in Yokosuka, the Shinano was to be moved from Tokyo Bay to an outfitting quay in Kure for final outfitting with a skeleton crew of sailors and shipyard workers not yet sufficiently familiar with the ship. Escorted by three destroyers, the huge carrier was sighted and attacked by the American submarine Archerfish about 300 km southeast of Cape Muroto on Japan's southern coast on November 29, 1944. The inexperienced crew had no way to prevent the ship's sinking after four torpedo hits due to the still missing leakage warning devices. Although the commander attempted to compensate for the carrier's list by counter-flooding, the ship remained stopped after its boilers failed and eventually capsized seven hours after the torpedo hits. Of the 2215 crew members aboard, 1435 met their deaths in the process; among them were Commander Toshio Abe and several pilots from a kamikaze squadron who had been transported on the Shinano in their Ōka aircraft.

The Shinano remains to this day the largest warship sunk by a submarine.

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