Kinu is the 5th ship of the 5500 ton Nagara-class light cruisers, who is also said to be improvement of the Kuma class. She's completed on November 1922.
Nagara class are cruisers equipped with aviation equipments. Kinu is used for testing gunpowder powered catapult.
The Nagara class are also the first cruisers equipped with 61 cm torpedo armaments increasing their torpedo attack ability.
At that time, Kinu is assigned to guard the continent. But after that she's also used as training ship.
When the Pacific War begin, she's sent to the southern front and on March 1942 participated in the battle of Java Sea (lightly damaged). After that she's assigned to the West Guinea as part of the southern force.During the 1944, she's mainly entrusted with supply operations. But on Operation Sho-I-gou on October, she departed for Lingga Anchorage under Admiral Kurita's fleet.
For troops transport operation to the Leyte islands, Kinu and the 16th cruiser division head to Manila. During this operation, Aoba got torpedoed by enemy submarine and had to be towed by Kinu to Manila.
After arriving in Manila, Kinu, Uranami and five other ships sortied to Cagayan for their troops transport mission. This time they are attacked by bombers from enemy aircraft carrier.
The next day after they finally reached Cagayan and loaded the troops, the group departs for their destination in Ormoc. Thanks to taking detour route, they safely arrived in Ormoc and unloaded the troops.
Kinu and Uranami then headed back to Manila, but en route near Panay Island they met with bad luck by encountering the US Navy's 7th fleet who are going for Admiral Kurita's fleet. About 50 airplanes changed their target and attacked Kinu.
First, Uranami sank, then Kinu lost cruising ability and finally sank too.
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