The class displaced 13300 tons, was 204 metres long, and was capable of 36 knots. She carried one aircraft and her main armament was 10 8-inch guns.
The Haguro was laid down on 16 March 1925, launched and named on 24 March 1928, and was commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 25 April 1929. Her service in the Second World War started in the Dutch East Indies, where she engaged the enemy off Makassar on 8 February 1942, played a role in the sinking of HMS Exeter and her escort in the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942, and was engaged in another action off south Borneo on 1 March 1942. On 7 May 1942 she participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea, moving on to the Solomon Islands where she took part in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August 1942, the evacuation from Guadalcanal at the end of January 1943, and took light damage in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay on 2 November 1943. On 19 June 1944 she survived the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and on 23-25 October 1944 she took light damage in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, before finally being sunk in the Indian Ocean on 16 May 1945.