 Iwate was first used as a training ship in 1916 and remained in that role for most of the rest of her career . Her sister , Izumo , was mostly used for training during the 1920s , but became flagship of the IJN forces in China in 1932 . She was involved in the Shanghai Incident that year and in the Second Sino @-@ Japanese War that began five years later . The ship was used in the early stages of the Philippines Campaign during the Pacific War until she struck a mine at the end of 1941 . Izumo joined her sister as a training ship in home waters in 1943 . Both ships were sunk in a series of American air attacks on the naval base at Kure in July 1945 . Their wrecks were refloated after the war and scrapped . 
