One of the big disappointments of WWII was the operation of Japan's fleet of submarines. Well, disappointing to the Japanese, that is. There were several reasons for this. One was the general timidity of submarine captains who often let opportunities slip from their grasp and rarely showed the sort of aggressiveness of their more successful American and German counterparts.

The other was the lack of any meaningful doctrine on just how to use submarines. The main reason for building them was to have them act as a scouting force for the fleet. Even at this they were not successful in most instances. The Japanese also tended to build their boats to a much larger scale than other forces. Made for great sea handling and long range, but also meant that they took longer to dive, couldn't dive as deep and were not very maneuverable when under water. Oddly enough, Japan developed the fastest underwater submarine of the war, yet produced less than a handful of them.

This brings up another situation and that is a lack of standardization. Instead of just a few classes that could be built in assembly line fashion, the Japanese developed dozens of different classes of boats for different purposes.

To sort out all of this, author Mark Stille has done an excellent job of giving us a brief rundown of each class, including any war successes of the various boats. This is all most ably accompanied by the fine artwork of illustrator Tony Bryan and what few period photos are available of these most interesting boats.

It all makes into an outstanding reference on the different types fielded by the Japanese Navy during WWII and is a book that naval enthusiasts simply have to have on their shelves.

June 2007

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