This is a wonderful topic. The Japanese built powerful warships - but with a different and fascinating perspective and appearance than the Western Powers. Unfortunately this book is a pamphlet: 75 or so pages, many pictures (good) but the accompanying description is merely a few paragraphs per ship - only a little more than a reader of the Pacific theatre would already know. Size of the book is also a detriment - thin; larger (height/ width) than a usual hardbound, much smaller than an illustrated book. Disappointingly, every time I see this book, the word "cheap" comes to mind. Sorry, go back and do a more comprehensive work on this and present it in a manner to be proud of.

This book is OK for what it is--a brief overview of Japanese aircraft carriers in World War II. What it isn't is a design history for Japanese carriers. It's too brief for that. The pictures are all right, but as in other Osprey books there just aren't enough to satisfy anyone who's really interested in the topic. Don't expect too much, and you'll be satisfied.

There isn't much here, but what is is pretty good. It would have been improved with some discussion of Japanese techniques of plane handling.

This is a very thin book. with only a couple pictures of each carrier. The Illustrations were good, but no diagrams and not much visuals of any hangar decks. This is great for kids, but not anyone looking for modeling resources.

If you know little or nothing about the Imperial Japanese Navy's Aircraft Carriers during the period 1921-45, as was the case with me, this is an excellent place to start. All twenty-one of them are covered from their genesis including specifications through their participation in battles, modifications and ultimate demise. The information is concise, easy to assimilate and fascinating. You are even told what the name of each carrier meant in Japanese.

If there is a gripe about this book it is the pictures. Pictures are important since most of us who would buy this book have never seen these ships. While there is little hope of gleaning much detail from a five inch long picture of an eight hundred foot long ship 90% of these pictures are really useless, way too much contrast. Nothing is worse than someone telling you to look at something in the picture when there is no hope of ever seeing it. There are half a dozen pictures in the book that are correctly printed the rest are all darkness and shadows.

I believe the publisher could have taken the time to make sure these pictures were computer enhanced and printed correctly especially since they are so small and it just wasn't done.

But I do believe the book is a fascinating introduction to these ships and a worthy if quick read. I give it five stars for packing so much interesting content in 48 pages and a three overall because of the lack of care taken in printing the pictures. Nevertheless it was worth the price of admission and with the caveat above I can recommend it to others.

If you want to know how many bolts and welds were used to build these ships,this book is not for you.But if your looking for a good overall picture of Japanese carriers in the second world war,this is it.

If you want to know how many bolts and welds were used to build these ships,this book is not for you.But if your looking for a good overall picture of Japanese carriers in the second world war,this is it.

I feel I need to defend this book. It does not deserve the low review ratings it has received.

My interest is mainly in the Battle of Midway, particularly the aircraft involved. In order to have a meaningful understanding of the battle, I needed a better mental picture of the ships. But I didn't need a full, in depth treatment. The Osprey book is just right. It gives me a basic history of the fleet carriers, a good physical description, with lots of photos and some very nice paintings, and a few fundamental specifications. It isn't a lot of material, it's just enough.

It seemed obvious to me that I was not buying a exhaustive description of these ships. After all, Amazon's book description plainly says that it is only 48 pages long! What can you expect in 48 pages?

I must say that I did in fact learn quite a bit from this book. I found one clue to the USN's stunning victory at Midway, here. It seems that the IJN's saftey practices and training were typically very poor. The USN was able to sink the IJN carriers with relatively few hits largely because of the IJN carriers' tendency to blow themselves up with aviation fuel vapor! The USN, on the other hand, had elaborate safety procedures that were adhered to strictly. The IJN carriers were not designed with as much attention to survivability as the USN carriers. That would explain why the Yorktown took the better part of 3 days and repeated attacks to sink, while the IJN ships went down quite fast.

Mark Stille is very clear and easy to read. Tony Bryan is a superb technical artist.

If you need a fully developed history and analysis of these ships, look elsewhere. If you want a concise, clear idea of what these vessels were like and how they operated, then this book is excellent.

Reading this pamphlet is one way to spend 20 minutes. However your 20 minutes would be better spent searching online for a book with a bit more "meat" on Japanese carriers.

As with most Osprey books, the info is compact and useful, and it fills the need for a short overview - What does the name of the ship mean? Why is the island on the wrong side? How many planes were carried? Where was it sunk? Everything provided is at the level of detail I need at this time. When I need broad, deep set of information I'll invest in the >1000 pages of information in "Sunburst" and "Kaigun" as recommended by another reviewer.

I was pleased with this book. For 48 pages, the book had a substantial amount of material, some of which I was previously unfamiliar with. The artwork looks great and the cutaway is very detailed for the space allowed. I enjoyed this book and recommend it anyone interested in these formidable vessels.

I was very disappointed in this volume. There is little real data here or in-depth illustrations. You are much better off getting some of the books indicated in the bibliography, though I'm surprised it does not mention 'Sunburst' by Mark Peattie, the Japanese Naval Air Arm companion to 'Kaigun' by Evans and Peattie. You would be much better off just going to the combinedfleet.com website and printing up the unit histories and operational descriptions. A number of Japanese sources that are readily available have much more detail. Perhaps it would have been better to just translate them into English. Unfortunately, a poor effort.