This book allows access to a photo collection that few Westerners will be able to see in person--that of the Kure Maritime Museum (formerly the Yamato Museum). This particular volume covers destroyers and destroyer-type vessels including torpedo boats and escort ships. The each photo has its own page, and most ships have just one page, although some have multiple pages.

The photos cover all phases of life for Japanese warships. They range in dates from the late nineteenth century to roughly 1947. So the reader gets to see ships that participated in the Sino-Japanese conflicts of the 1890's, the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, and, of course, World War II. The photos cover everything from ships on the building ways to disarmed ships sailing to repatriate Japanese soldiers home after the end of the war.

The quality of the photos is excellent, most of them being formal ship portraits taken by the shipyard either shortly before or after the ship's commissioning. Some of the photos are "action" photos taken in the course of combat operations. These are not commonly seen, although the two page spread of the destroyer Shiranui in dry dock after being torpedoed in the Aleutians in 1942 has been replicated in Western publications.

For those seeking quality photographs of Japanese warships of the late nineteenth and twentieth century, this is the book for you. ( )