 Izumo was ordered to patrol the west coast of Mexico to safeguard Japanese interests and nationals during the Mexican Revolution and was still there when Japan declared war on the German Empire on 23 August 1914 . She was then tasked to search for German commerce raiders and protect Allied shipping off the western coasts of North and Central America . The ship assisted the armored cruiser Asama in early 1915 , when she struck a rock off Baja California . In 1917 , Izumo became the flagship of the Japanese squadron deployed in the Mediterranean Sea . After the war , she sailed to Great Britain to take control of some ex @-@ German submarines and then escorted them part of the way back to Japan . 
