In World War II she took part in the Invasion of the Philippines in December 1941. In the Battle of the Java Sea on March 1, 1942 she shared in the sinking of the cruiser HMS Exeter and the destroyer HMS Encounter.

On June 8, 1945, Ashigara left Batavia for Singapore with 1,600 troops on board, escorted by the destroyer Kamikaze. In the Bangka Strait the two ships came under attack from three Allied submarines, Blueback, Trenchant and Stygian. Kamikaze attacked Trenchant with gunfire, forcing her to submerge, and then with depth charges, but Commander Arthur Hezlet spotted Ashigara and fired eight torpedoes at her at about 12:15. Ashigara was hit five times and capsized at 12:37. Kamikaze rescued 400 troops and 853 crew, including Miura.

Class and type: Myōkō-class cruiser
Displacement: 13,300 long tons (13,500 t)
Length: 203.76 m (668 ft 6 in)
Beam: 19 m (62 ft 4 in)
Draft: 5.03 m (16 ft 6 in)
Speed: 35.5 knots (40.9 mph; 65.7 km/h)
Complement: 920-970
Armament: 10 × 203 mm (8.0 in) guns (5×2)
6 × 120 mm (4.7 in) (to 1934) or 8 × 127 mm (5.0 in) (from 1935) guns
2 × 13 mm (0.51 in) machine guns
12 × 610 mm (24 in) torpedo tubes (1)
Aircraft carried: 1

• Japanese cruiser Ashigara on wikipedia.
  Wikipedia.
• Lacroix, Eric; Linton Wells (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press, pp. 808-809.