Product Description

Presents the complete history of the Japanese World War II battleship, the Musashi. The book covers all details, from the planning and making of the ship to its final sinking at Leyte Gulf in 1944.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72187 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Battleship Musashi
Built in the utmost secrecy, Musashi & her twin sister Yamato were the largest battleships ever built.Such was the level of secrecy involved, that when a blueprint went missing the Japanese Naval Police jailed & tortured seven members of the blueprints staff until they eventually discovered that the plan was burnt in error. The scale of these ships was staggering such that the shipyard had to be specially enlarged to accomodate the build & launch. Everything about them was huge, from needing a special freighter built to transport the massive 18" guns from the Yokahama Arsenal to the shipyard for final fitting out, to a powerful tugboat which had also to be built to move the massive ship once she was launched.That said, being groundbreaking in every respect is only valuable when it's of it's time. Sadly both ships were obsolete before they were even launched and even more ironically ,it was the Japanese Navy themselves who demonstrated quite empahatically that the Aircraft Carrier was the new queen of the seas. Both Yamato & Musashi spent most of their lives swinging round their anchor chains whilst lesser members of the Japanese fleet were sent out to combat the Americans. Only when things became desperate were both ships committed to battle & inevitably both succumed to carrier air power. My only real criticism is that in the final chapters the details of the American attacks on Musashi are a bit sketchy, and the translation form the original Kanji is quite quirky, for example it frequently refers to "axles" meaning propeller shafts.That aside any book on these secretive vessels is always more than welcome.

Interesting book - but fatally flawed by lack of references
This is the naval book equivalent of a TV "Docu-soap". Based on fact, much imagination has been added to make it a good read for the general public.
The problem is that it is difficult to sort the facts from the "dressing up ".
If references had been cited, even just as a half page note, then this would be a very good book indeed, despite the translator's ( and perhaps the author's ) obvious limited knowlege of things naval.

Worth buying as it tells a story very well, but one always has the feeling that some of the new information provided may be or may not be real .

The lenghts of deception
A very good book!

A real treat if you are interested in pre-Hiroshima Japan. The book convers well the design and build process of Musashi.

The level of secrecy Japan was ready to go cover the fact that Yamato and Musashi ware being build is simply stunning.

A must for anyone interested in the war in Pacific.