Reviews for Japanese high seas fleet (Ballantine's illustrated history of the violent century. Weapons b...

The average rating for Japanese high seas fleet (Ballantine's illustrated history of the violent century. Weapons b... based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-10-25 00:00:00 Joseph Smetanka Surprising myself quite a bit, I may have enjoyed this book even more than the Ballantine book on tank warfare in World War 1. What's so surprising about that is I had (and still have) virtually no interest in naval or air combat. I certainly don't mean to offend anyone in the Navy or Air Force - I sincerely thank you for your service. For some inexplicable reason, conflict simulation games about naval or aircraft combat just do not interest me in any way. It's not because I have had bad Battleship! experiences or anything like that. I have owned Midway and Luftwaffe and a few other games of their ilk, but none of them appealed to me. I say again I can't explain it. I have no desire to play X-Wing or Armada or Wings of Glory. Strangely enough, I had many enjoyable hours playing TIE Fighter and Wing Commander II back in the day - they did not spoil my appetite for the genre either. For whatever reason(s), naval and air combat just don't interest me ... but this book was engaging, interesting, informative, well-written (even for a 28-year-old kid) and I plowed through it. I suspect part of my interest came from its Japanese-centric perspective (coming, I understand, from a European Caucasian's research/analysis/synthesis framework) - you don't get that too often, at least, I haven't. Mr. Humble gave what appeared to me (and I less humbly consider myself a fairly attentive and sensitive reader to that sort of thing) a balanced and respectful treatment of the positive and negative aspects of the development of the Japanese navy from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of WW2, within the limitations of the series, of course. Especially interesting was the seemingly universal problem of "Decision Makers in Charge" not listening to the wise counsel of actually knowledgeable, competent people, such as Yamamoto - why would high command not listen to him? Mr. Humble answers that question well, of course, but those of us who feel like we are in similar situations are still boggled and bamboozled by it. The only thing preventing me from giving this five stars is it ended too abruptly for me. I wish it had a few more pages (or even paragraphs) of conclusion - what lessons should be learned? what syntheses can we create from this history? Now, please don't interpret that as "why can't you do that for yourself?" ... oh, I could. My point is I wish Mr. Humble had done it, because his writing and treatment of the subject was so riveting I wanted to know more from him based on all the reading and research and work he put into it and couldn't necessarily say because of the limitations of the series design - the work just somewhat abruptly stops. I wanted a fuller, longer conclusion to the entire journey. If it had that, I would be willing to give this five stars, something I don't give too often (keeper of the stars as I am). This was great. (I still don't have any desire to play naval or air wargames, but I really liked this book.)

Review # 2 was written on 2013-12-14 00:00:00 Jesus Diaz In late XIX century a major political and sociological change occurred in Japan, the so called Meiji Restoration. After centuries of self-imposed isolation, Japan finally decided to open up to international relations and trade. This process also meant the creation of a modern army and navy. In typical Japanese fashion, the country did not re-invent the wheel but looked at how the powers at the time were organized. Hence, they decided to develop their navy following the organization and structure of the most powerful one: the Royal Navy. What happens next is a fascinating story of how the most recently created navy became the third navy of the world (in terms of size) by early XX century. Only to face total destruction at the end of WW2 in the Pacific theatre. Richard Humble's narrative is concise and precise, and in a mere 160 pages work he manages to describe quite correctly the development and eventual decline of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Naturally, in 160 pages there´s little room to delve deep in details when it comes to relating major events such as the Battle of Midway. However, the book is also packed with many pictures, maps and illustrations; which greatly enhances the final result. On a personal note I would add that being far from an authoritative work, this book is recommended if you want to learn how the IJN developed from its inception to its destruction. At any rate it is a very compelling read.