The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War

by Mark E. Stille

From the stunning victory at Pearl Harbor to its dramatic reversal at Midway, the Imperial Japanese Navy swept all before it in its numerous victories in the Pacific and Far Eastern waters. The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War pulls from many of Osprey's bestselling books on the subject in addition to the most recent research on the subject, including many sources from Japan, and is the most recent and accurate book on this fascinating force.

Even after its setback at midway, the IJN remained a powerful force and inflicted sever setbacks on the US Navy at Guadalcanal and elsewhere. The Imperial Japanese Navy focuses on the Japanese ships which fought the battles in the Pacific including design details, where and when they were engaged and their ultimate effectiveness. In addition,
the construction, design and service history of each ship from destroyer size on up is included. A comprehensive survey of the submarine force is also included. Modifications of each ship are covered making this a valuable reference source for Pacific War enthusiasts and historians, as well as ship modelers.

A short history of the IJN during the Pacific War places all warship design and history in proper context. Finally, a chapter discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the IJN is included ultimately asking the question of whether the IJN really was a modern Navy which was fully prepared for the rigors of combat in the Pacific.

Genres: History, Japan, Audiobook, Nonfiction, World War II, Military Fiction, War

392 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 21, 2014

Reviews

[Boudewijn · Rating 3 out of 5]

An encyclopaedic description of the Japanese navy during the war, divided in different chapters for each type, such as carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines. If you want to know what different types there were, what their armament was and how they performed during the Pacific War, this is your book.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War, by Mark Stille, is an interesting and colourful coffee table style book on the Japanese Navy in the Pacific War, primarily looking at the years they began to engage the American Navy. The book briefly chronicles the history of this period, from Pearl Harbor to the last major naval engagements of the war. The Japanese Navy was often at a disadvantage with Allied forces before the War, due to treaty clauses limiting the number of specific classes of ships the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) could field. This forced the Japanese to invest heavily in upgrading the technical capabilities, range and efficiency of their naval forces to ensure the IJN could take out more than it lost. These technical improvements ranged from longer ranged naval guns to battle tactics and group logistics improvements. The quality of Japanese Destroyers and Carrier groups in particular caught the Allies off guard, as most nations assumed Japanese Naval characteristics were sub-par. This dismissal of Japanese Naval tactics and technological prowess was damaging to the Allied war effort, and ensured swift victories for Japan early in the war, as they quickly swept aside Allied defense forces in Asia, struck a deadly blow against the American Pacific fleet, and pushed toward Australia through Papua New Guinea.

The book details the improvements of Japanese naval design leading up to, and during the war, with detailed analysis of Aircraft Carriers, Battleships, Support Craft, Destroyers and Naval Planes. These details are brief but highly technical, and should be of interest to those who enjoy the more technical side of naval ship design. The book also examines the short comings of the IJN, including confused and baffling tactical and logistical decisions by the high command, lack of radar and ship detecting equipment, and inferior fire control and landing infrastructure on Carrier ships.

A major downside of the book was its focus on the end of the Pacific War. The book heavily favours the beginning of American involvement in the War - more than half-way through the opening salvos of the war against China, and the swift and decisive invasions and destruction of Allied colonies and ships as Japan entered the wider war. This was disappointing and shaved off a good deal more of the story than could be told. Even so, with interesting photos and facts, detailed technical analysis of IJN forces, and a very appealing style and feel, this is a fun read for those interested in the subject matter. Recommended for deeper WWII buffs looking for a detailed analysis of specific IJN forces.

[SnarkyMoggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is not about the battles in the Pacific by the Japanese Navy during World War II as I had thought when I got it. The book is made up of lists of every boat/ship the Japanese have before, during and after the war. This is great if the reader wants to know when a ship was made, what fortifications it initially had, when it was upgraded due to the Japanese leaving the treaty with the USA/Britain/Etc or during the War to fix issues, when it was damaged in what battle and/or when it was sunk, or, if it survived the War. But not, as I had thought, about the battles at sea. There are only a sentence or two of what battles each ship participated in, and what happened to them during it.

It was by sheer stubbornness that I finished this.

This is purely a statistical navy book.

[Aditya Pareek · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Author is a Retired Commander USN, presents a perfect narrative of Imperial Japanese Navy's structure,assets,operational craft and logic behind the specific decision making and policy/naval doctrine that evolved because of certain geopolitical reasons like the Washington and London Naval Conferences. Absolutely Objective and does justice to every individual and ship it talks about.
As expected of Osprey to the point and precise not a word of superfluous filler. 3 thumbs up ;)

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've always had an interest in the IJN, and I was really looking forward to reading this book when it came out. Unfortunately, it's not a whole lot more than a rehearsal in new formatting of the information you could have gotten fifty years ago from AJ Watts' Japanese Warships of World War II. The book has a short introduction and conclusion about the operations of the IJN in the war, and these parts bizarrely show no knowledge of the American deciphering of the Japanese naval codes and the affect of this on operations. The main body is discussion of the various classes of the warships of the IJN grouped by chapter according to category of ship (carriers, battleships, cruisers etc.) and arranged in chronological order. There's an introduction for each chapter that gives a pretty cursory description of the development and employment of the category of ships, and then each class has a discussion of a) design and construction, b) armament, c) service modifications, d) wartime service. The armament stuff gets pretty boring, and while the employment of capital ships can be meaningful, the piling up of disconnected campaigns of destroyers and especially submarines borders on the useless. In particular, the circumstances of the loss of the lesser ships is often so succinct as to be meaningless. Instead of the endless litany of mind-numbing facts, a bit of comparative discussion of how the Japanese ships stacked up to the corresponding ships of other countries would be more informative.

There are some nice schematic color drawings with cutaways. Unlike the Watts book, some of the technical information is presented in separate tables, which can make consultation easy. There are lists of translations for the names of ships down to cruisers, but for no readily apparent reason there is no listing of the often rather poetical sounding names of destroyers. A particular fault of the book are the inferior illustrations. It seems as if these come mainly from two sources, and while some are clear, a disturbingly large number are very fuzzy. I know from personal experience what a pain in the ass it is these days to get images with a proper copyright lineage to allow for publication, but I think that much better images could have been gotten, and if you're going to have a book full of illustrations, it would be a good idea to make sure to get the best ones available.

Not sure that the book really is much of an improvement over Watts', which was also more all-encompassing, including classes like destroyer escorts that are ignored here. Also, I may be old-fashioned, but I find it jarring to hear major vessels referred to as "it". I had to do a whole lot of mental conversion to "she", "her" etc!

[Sean Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you don't have all of Stille's excellent Osprey books then this a title worth having. It collects them all, adding a synopsis of the war, Japanese doctrine, and reasons for their defeat. All in all a good book, but something on the admirals and sailors would have been nice. Perhaps in a future Osprey title?

[Dem Doggos · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I got this book from bookdepository.com, for around 24€. Book is in hard cover, and was delivered quite fast, around 10 days. So, for bookdepository, 5 stars.

The book however is a mixed bag. The quality of paper and cover is very good. But the pictures though. The pictures are a mix of very nice, very crisp photos, to almost completely unrecognisable grey mush. The occasional drawings are a nice touch, although I miss a simple silhouette for each ship. When it comes to data and informations included, they are brief and simple. This is not a very hardcore, tons of details, analyze evrything book. This is a simple compedium for a quick read and having a handy reference. So if you look for a more detailed book, this is propably not for you. But if you want to know basic stuff about Imperial Japanese Navy, it's a good choice. Apart from not really accurate remarks about the performance. But, data is overall correct. So a nice book, although the pictures would absolutely need some love.

[Kipi (the academic stitcher) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Great information that doesn't make a compelling listen. This book is a great resource for someone who wants specific details about the various ships of the IJN. That being said, the information does not translate well into an audiobook. If I can find a hardback copy of this one, I would snap it up just to have all the information on the ships of the IJN.

The narration of the audiobook is good overall; however, there are a few of those odd pronunciations of Japanese names that make me crazy. I've listened to countless historians discuss many of these ships and men, and there is a very consistent way that Americans/English speakers say these names, so why do audiobook narrators (who are also native English speakers) mess with them? Why? For example, the battleship Yamato is usually pronounced Ya-MAH-to, not YA-mah-to. I don't speak Japanese, so it's entirely possible that his pronunciations are correct for a native Japanese speaker (which this narrator is not), but I know that it isn't how major historians do it. Ugh.

[Rodney J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Details, Details, Details. A Factual Treasure Chest

While not a stirring history of naval actions in WWII Pacific, this book lays out the fundamentals of the IJN in a solid and readable fashion.

Wonder why the IJN had such success Dec 1941 to November 1942? The answer is in their naval designs and implemented strategy. Likewise their demise can be traced back to those pre-war ship designs.

For those with significant prior knowledge of the naval conflicts in the Pacific War, this book fills in a lot of details and background. Not a “light read” but worthy of consideration if you want detailed information.

[Tom Mahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done. It was great to see what eventually happened to all the many ships of all classes (carrier, battleship, cruiser, destroyer) and how they met their end. It was also very interesting to learn the intended tactical plans for each class of warship, and how they were expected to coordinate with other classes of ships.

[Blazej · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and in-depth. This is not light reading but if you enjoy getting detailed information on every weapon system and vessel of the IJN, as well as the analysis of their strategy, tactics and politics throughout WW2, look no further.

[Jesús · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for any person interested in WW2, specially in the Pacific front

[Georgiana]

This isn't a book - it's a database.

[Joseph Ficklen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great review of each combat ship of the IJN, however I had to skip most of the destroyers and all of the submarines because it got too granular.

[Ethan Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative, yet sometimes confusing because information is repeated too much without a full explanation. For example when he is talking about some of the ships, he provides pictures in which he says the object being pointed out is obvious, yet the picture is blurry and his explanation of the location uses words that not everyone may understand. Some typos are present and some of the classes of ships contain comparisons to the last classes of ships which makes it hard to find one class and read about it as information is spread out. Overall the book is informative but has some confusing elements.

[Steven Hull · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War may be classified as a reference work, it is also an informative, detailed account of the naval strategy Japan employed against the United States before and during World War II. It also gives descriptions of each IJN ship and submarine class and the fortunes that befell them from 1941-1945.
The detail on individual ship classes and what happened to those ships during the war can be overwhelming. Nevertheless, trends begin to emerge as the reader progresses through the book. These trends were the result of Japan’s lack of resources and the defensive war she was forced to fight following the Battle of Midway in June 1942. As the war evolved, Japanese strategy and improvements in technology did not keep pace with those of the United States. The IJN continued to look for a decisive battle with the U.S. Navy throughout the war. When this battle eventually took place at Leyte Gulf in October 1944, the IJN was annihilated by superior technology, tactics, aircraft and overwhelming force. Although blessed with excellent airplanes in 1941, the IJN could not keep pace with the new, emerging classes of American aircraft, which were faster, better armed and armored, and present is large numbers. Likewise, as the IJN lost ships, particularly capital ships, it could not replace them in the quantities needed. In contrast, the United States developed new and better classes of vessels in great numbers. For example, the IJN started the war with eighteen heavy cruisers. By July 1945 all of them had been sunk and no new ones had been built during the war.
Despite possessing some of the best submarines, the IJN increasingly was forced to employ them defensively and as resupply vessels. Her anti-submarine warfare tactics and technology were second rate and as a result the U.S. Navy’s submarines effectively destroyed the Japanese merchant marine, doing to Japan what Hitler had failed to do to the United Kingdom. In addition, the Japanese failed to develop adequate radars and radar directed gunfire. By the end of the war, the IJN was finished as a fighting force.
This book is recommended for those who want a detailed and easy to use IJN ship reference and a summary of the IJN’s strategy and tactics.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

In short, this is an excellent reference book for those lacking one. "The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War" offers concise summaries of the design, armament, modifications, and service history of each class of warship in the IJN. Also included is a summary of Japanese naval strategy, a (very) brief history of the IJN during the war, and ample visual references for each class of ship.

The author goes to great pains to identify the armament and service modifications of each class in great detail (to the point that it becomes repetitive). Information on the armor belt and engine plant is also included, though not described as thoroughly. My only real, albeit minor complaint, is that there is no comparison against comparable allied vessels. Still, that is a small quibble and easily dismissed as outside the bounds of the subject.

The service history included for each ship class (specifying each ship's deployment, combat history and [most commonly] loss) was perhaps the most interesting bit. I quite enjoyed tracking an individual ship's service across the war, and comparing it to its sisters. While this information is hardly new, the formatting makes such an exercise more accessible.

Perhaps the highlights of the book are its visual references. All ship classes have multiple photos and some have high quality illustrations. The photos themselves are a mixed batch: one overhead of a Myoko class heavy cruiser left me slack-jawed at its quality and definition (particularly for 1941); others were blurry enough the accompanying caption did not make sense. The illustrations, on the other hand, I found uniformly solid.

My main criticism is that the author offers nothing new. In 1967 A.J. Watts wrote "Japanese Warships of World War II" and this book seems more like a remastering of that work than an original product. Stille's work is more pleasing to the eye, with more photographs, full color illustrations, and perhaps a cleaner presentation, but no new information.

To summarize, if you are looking for your first reference on the IJN during WWII, look no further. If you already have Watt's "Japanese Warships of World War II" pass because it offers nothing new.

[Simon Binning · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very detailed, almost technical, work about the Japanese Navy in WW2. I found it a bit of a struggle as a general reader! It doesn't tell a linear story, but starts with an overview of the navy's actions from about 1918 to 1945, and ends with an analysis and conclusion. The chapters in between each take a ship type (carrier, battleship, etc) and describe their history in Japan, and then detail all the classes within that type, and list all the known examples and some of their history. For me, this proved a bit too much detail, but as a work of reference, it would be ideal.
I noted at the very end that this book is a consolidation of a number of other books (each dealing with one ship type), so that would explain the slightly disjointed nature of the work.
My decision to only award three stars is not because it is a bad book; anyone seeking detailed information about specific Japanese ships would be hard-pressed to find a better source. It is well written and well-illustrated. But it is not really for the general reader wanting a linear history of the war from the view of the Japanese navy. I should also mention that it has not really been formatted as an e-book; on both kindle and iPad, chapter and section titles split across pages, as do illustrations and their captions.

[Brian Sweetman · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite specialised but has all the information you need