The Heavy Cruiser "Takao"

View books by Janusz Skulski.

Not the complete anatomy - Rated
I was quite curious to compare Japanese warship shipbuilding methods with those of the British (see anatomy of cruiser HMS Belfast) and the italians (see Cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni). However, I was surprised to find almost no information on the structure of the hull and also almost no information about machinery, just some small scale drawings. The book seems to be focused on all the items above main deck, mostly in the superstructure, and even for that more in its geometry than in the way it was built.
However, I must say that the superestructure is odd enough to have received such attention, as it seems to have been designed with the same barroque mind as Walt Disney's castles. There is also plenty of information about all kind of guns and floatplanes and boats carried on board and the photographs are quite interesting as well.
So, from the point of view of a "civil" naval architect the most interesting part is missing. It seems as if the author had only had access to the superestructure refitting project and not to the main body of technical documentation which maybe was destroyed a long time ago.
In spite of everything, a fine book.