Japanese Battleships, 1897-1945: A Photographic Archive

Very explcit detailed book with plenty of period photographs. What's not to like!

Good photo collection of Japans battleships and battle cruisers

Great book, a little sparse on technical and service record information, but the pictures are of great help!

Interesting book with great photographs about all Japanese battleships !! Worthwhile to have for every IJN enthusiast and modeller.

As posted, RA Burt is known for his trilogy on British Battleships (1889 to HMS Vanguard) -- those are superb books along the set written by John Roberts. The title of this is "A Photographic Archive" -- it is a textbook format book of photos. The narrative consists of a short table of essential data (length, displacement, guns, etc.) and extensive captions for each photo. It is not a "ship type" book with extensive analysis & commentary. It's obvious while Burt has "knowledge", he did not have citations of sources, original research and bibliography or the 200+ pages of narrative needed for an "analysis" or "ship type" type book. All the information is conveyed via the photo captions, containing commentary of evolving appearance of the ships. The author's objective appears to publish photos that are unique (ships as completed, modernized or altered significantly) or within "combat" context (last photo before sunk, or sinking as attacked by US aircraft or submarine). The "combat" photos are blurry as often they were taken afar or from the attacking aircraft. There are some side profile drawings of ships, but they are poorly drawn; a few side profiles have details, and I think there is only 1 deck plan (which Burt himself drew). Because there are few books on the IJN (best is the Watts/Gordon) any new books are welcomed (e.g., Mark Stille book), but this one by Burt is a lower-effort and NOT a seminal piece. I bought this recently because the selling price dropped below 50% of list (flash sale perhaps). In the $30+ range, I would not have bothered adding it to my library.

Let me start by giving this first note. I own and love the British Battleships series by R.A. Burt, they are extremely detailed with numerous line drawings, photos and a wealth of information. This book on the other hand, while has great photos of Japanese battleships is lacking in everything else. The book is short, has no actual pages of information, just photos with detailed captions. I'm giving it a 4 star rating cause I love photos.

good book well written with numerous ship pictures.

Another one of RA Burt's great collections of photographic compilations. Most of the pictures I have never seen previously.

Unlike R. A. Burt's detailed works on British battleships, this claims only to be a photographic archive and as such fulfills its purpose with excellent detailed photos of all classes of ship at different times in their careers. However, there are a number of minor errors. Asama (p.28): Date given as 1922 instead of 1902 (this is merely a typo). Kasuga (p.34): 2-8" omitted from armament. Iki (p.50): No need to mention Alexandr II which was never in Japanese hands. Satsuma (p. 80): Should not be compared with British armoured cruisers but rather with Lord Nelson class. Aki (p. 81: This ship was sufficiently different from Satsuma to have a section of its own rather than one small photograph. Settsu class (p.84): These ships are not comparable to Lord Nelson (Satsuma is) but, perhaps with the German Nassau class.

Esperaba algo más de R. A. But después de tener tres libros dedicados a los acorazados ingleses. Pero éste es un bodrio donde los haya. No tiene nada en absoluto que ver con el análogo de editorial Kagero que trata el mismo asunto

Japanese Battleships 1897-1945 is essentially an collection of photographs of each of Japan’s battleships, armoured cruisers and battlecruisers during the time period in question (including the Russian battleships taken as war prizes). The pictures themselves are all reproduced well, with the quality varying based on the source (action shots are necessarily lower-quality than stationary shots taken in harbour) but are all interesting. Thus, the book’s key feature is in good form. However, patchy editing in the tables, and some occasionally odd phrases and statements in the comments attached to each photo (many of which are very good) tar an otherwise excellent work. The table for the Ise class, for example, lists their main armament as 12 x 12in 45 cal (they were 14in 45 cal, as noted in captions), while in a caption on the Fuso class, the book states ‘Yamashiro and Fuso were part of the Japanese battle fleet at the battle of Leyte Gulf on 22 October 1944 and again at the battle of Surigao Strait on 25 October 1944’ – when Surigao Strait was one of four actions that comprise the battle of Leyte Gulf, all of which took place between the 24th and 26th of October (although there were some submarine actions on the 23rd). These slips are all the more confusing as the author clearly knows their subject matter. They don’t take away from the core purpose of the book (wonderful pictures of Japanese capital ships and armoured cruisers) and some are insightful and interesting, but the sketchier comments and editing issues keep it from being consistently top-drawer. That said, still an easy recommendation for people interested in Japanese battleships, as long as the editing issues are born in mind.

Excellent book compiling a lot of rare photos together which although previous published in other books are all conveniently grouped within this volume a must for japanese capital ship enthusiasts

Très bel ouvrage sur les cuirassés de la Marine Impériale Japonaise. Riches de photographies rares ou inédites, l'ensemble est agrémenté de commentaires éclairés.