Publisher's Synopsis
This book of "The Japanese Battleships" is devoted to a technical description of the vessels built between 1911 (Kongo) and 1942 (Musashi) and their upgrades. But before we commence we must go back to the Washington Conference and the Treaty signed as its result. As we know its ratification by individual countries banned construction of new battleships and those which were already under construction had to be scrapped. For the ship design bureaus an incredible opportunity arose to conduct various gun and mine resistance tests with the unfinished ships, which meant that complete battleships could be used instead of mockups. In such a way an accurate result could be given to different questions, which confirmed or denied the intentions of the designers. Also, it was a good opportunity to test new construction materials and - most importantly - to try out new means of combat which at that time were entering service with navies worldwide.
