Shokaku was a Shokaku-class aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Takatsugu Jojima became her captain on 8 August 1941.
On 7 December 1941 she joined the attack on Pearl Harbor. Aircraft launched from her deck that day, and she came through the operation without a hit.
At the Battle of the Coral Sea on 8 May 1942, bombs from American carrier aircraft wrecked her flight deck. That damage is not credited to any one ship. She left the fight still afloat, and the wrecked deck kept her out of Midway.
Masafumi Arima took command on 25 May 1942. On 24 August 1942, in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, near misses fell around her and she was not sunk. Arima was relieved on 16 February 1943.
Hiroshi Matsubara became captain on 17 November 1943. He was still in command when she was lost.
On 19 June 1944, during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the submarine Cavalla (SS-244) torpedoed Shokaku and sank her.