IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY AIRCRAFT CARRIERS 1921—45

The Navy of Japan in the period covered within the present publication written by Tony Brian in collaboration with Mark Stille, was treated as a genuine pioneer in the field of naval aviation, who performed the commissioning of the Hosho carrier, the very first one to be built straight from the keel up. In the time between 1920 and 1930 the Imperial Navy experimented with the carriers, trying to further improve their design and construction.

This all has resulted in a remarkably effective naval aviation of the Imperial Japanese Navy by the time their country entered the Second World War. This nice and informative volume is covering the design of those vessels together with the operation and development of those Japanese aircraft carriers constructed prior to and also during the Second World War.

The author has paid particular attention to the philosophies that used to drive the design of the Japanese aircraft carriers. It shall be noted that some of the carriers have been originally laid down as battle cruisers or battleships and later converted to the aircraft carriers following the Washington Naval Treaty.

The construction of the carriers will give the interested readers a good technical insight into why those carriers suffered the mortal wounds that the American carriers could actually survive, e.g. the construction of the fuel lines and tanks etc.