Titans of the Rising Sun The Rise and Fall of Japans Yamato Class Battleships Perfect Paperback – September 10, 2010

The Author clearly did his homework. Being a huge fan of anything history I enjoyed the book, however it is highly detailed and can be a bit like a manual of ships of the Japanese Navy.

This book was a large disappointment. The previous reviews highly over rated the content compared to other titles out about the Yamato and Musashi.
The text is at best a an over view of the history of these ships, breaking no new ground. The illustrations and pictures very amazingly sparse.
Definitely not worth the money nor a lead book on these vessels.

Great read, a must have for any pacific war wnthusiast.

Titans of the Rising Sun; The Rise and Fall of Japan's Yamato Class Battleships. Bawal, Raymond A., Jr. Clinton Township: Inland Expressions, 2010. [ISBN 13 978-0-9818157-3-2]

(Note: this review edited by Benjamin W. Hartley on June 13, 2011.)

If one needs a quick overview of the subject, this one might do. The print job is first-class, and the binding is very good for a paperback. The layout is good, the selected type face easily readable and the inclusion of both a bibliography and an index is exemplary. One item, however, makes me wince: here's the full quotation, from the back of the title page:.

"DISCLAIMER. The photographs and information contained within have been researched thoroughly but while the author and publisher of this book have made every effort to provide accurate information they are by no means responsible for any errors or omissions in the publication."

Whatever became of the old-fashioned notion that authors are wholly responsible for errors in their manuscripts?

Now to one of my pet peeves: this book was neither properly copy-edited nor proof-read before publication. Here are some egregious errors.

Text, many places: "whom" is incorrectly used in place of "who."

Text, page 11: "deep seeded resentment" should be "deep seated resentment"

Text, page 12: "When the 'Dreadnaught' was completed in 1906..."; caption, page 13: "When the 'HMS Dreadnaught' was completed in 1909..." Which is correct?

Text, page 16: "...while the 'Satsuma' had reciprocating power plants the was powered by steam turbines." [sic] The other ship's name is omitted; from context, this most probably should read "...the 'Aki' was powered by steam turbines..." And ships may have "engines" (plural), but no ship has more than one "power plant."

Text, pages 40-41:"No sooner had the modernization of this class ended that [sic] another improvement program..." should read "...ended than another..."

Text, page 43: "Armed with 16-inch guns, the 'Nagato' and the 'Hyuga'..." 'Hyuga' had 14-inch guns; 'Mutsu' is the only other IJN battlewagon having 16-inchers.

Caption, page 61: "The Yamato was commissioned on December 26, 1942..."; text, page 67: "...it [the 'Yamato'] was commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 16, 1941." Which is correct?

Caption, page 82: "Japanese fighter and attack aircraft prepare to be lauched towards their targets at Pearl Harbor during the early morning hours of December 7, 1945" Um... er... No. Sorry. Pearl was attacked in 1941 (And as an aside, there isn't an 'attack aircraft' in the published picture: they are all fighters.)

Oh, all right, that's little stuff, right? True. But if the little stuff's unclear or even erroneous -- and never mind that "disclaimer" -- how much trust can be placed in the big stuff? I'd not place much, but you make up your own mind. I have some other objections, as well, just not so picky, perhaps.

The author perpetuates three of the "but everybody knows" myths about the Battle of Midway: that the dive-bombing attack on Kaga, Akagi, and Soryu succeeded because the Japanese CAP had been lured down to low altitude, that Admiral Nagumo's second strike was just about ready to take off when the U. S. planes struck, and that the U. S. task forces were outnumbered by the Japanese mobile force. None of these are true. Parshall and Tully's "Shattered Sword," published in 2005, does a fine job of demolishing these myths, among others, and "Shattered Sword" most certainly would have been available to the author.

Much has been made for years about the Yamato being given sufficient fuel for a one-way trip during Operation Ten Ichi Go. The author rightly mentions that this has been called into question but implies that this is a recent interpretation. It isn't. The Report of The United States Navy Technical Mission to Japan, transmitted to the Chief of Naval Operations in January 1946, states the Yamato had a 90% fuel load. (Tameichi Hara, last captain of the Yamato-escorting light cruiser 'Yahagi' implies -- admittedly, he does not explicitly state -- that his own ship was fully-fueled and provisioned, and Hara, after all, was there. In truth, however, Hara quotes RADM Komura as specifying the operation orders to fuel Yamato for a one-way trip. Ya' pays yer money and ya' takes yer choice.)

It may well be outside the scope of this work, but perhaps a bit more about the Japanese "eight-eight" fleet concept, and the Japanese desire to maintain at least 70% of total U. S. fleet strength could be included. It should be noted, too, that both 'Yamato' and her sister ship, 'Musashi,' were being preserved in accordance with long-standing IJN doctrine: the one great strategic battle which would win the war. It didn't occur, and when the Imperial Japanese Navy finally realized that "the decisive battle" never would occur, it was very much too late. Flawed doctrine based on a flawed interpretation of history -- among a great many other things -- is what doomed Japan.

This well researched and written book traces the history of Japanese warships and tactics. The book is written in a very factual style and is an easy and enjoyable read.

Bawal painstakingly traces the technical development and strategic thinking behind the super-battleship Yamato and her sister ship, Musashi, in the context of the entire Japanese Navy. Their roots go back to the rout of Imperial Russia's Pacific Squadron at Tsushima in 1905 and the Japanese naval command's belief that the battleship would be the core naval weapon of the 20th century. As Bawal writes, "these symbols of military might were the nuclear weapons of their day, providing security through a deterrent to aggression." Bawal discusses the Yamato and her sisters in a detached manner, without nostalgia, and the text could have featured a few more anecdotes about the thousands of men who served on these ships. The story is still compelling, however, and students of the Pacific War will better understand the important detail of the Yamato's history after reading this book.

Before the air became an important battlefield, dominion over the seas was critical to an empire. "Titans of the Rising Sun: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Yamato Class Battleships" looks at the history surrounding Japan's naval power at the turn of the twentieth century and how it came into play during this period in its war with Russia and its expanding power over Asia. But in its rush to gain power on the world stage and keep a stronger military, Japan made many errors. "Titans of the Rising Sun" is a detailed piece of military history, highly recommended.