In early 1930, Japan was interested in new battleship designs as the battleship Building Holiday due to the Washington Treaty was due to expire in 1931. Two designs were submitted, the Fujimoto design and the Hiraga design. Both designs have unusual features. The Fujimoto design carries their secondary guns both fore and aft of the main battery turrets, two forward and for aft. A catapult is mounted atop C turret. The Hiraga design carries her secondary guns in mixed arrangement: 4 twin turrets and eight single casemate mounts. Captain K. Fujimoto was the chief designer of the Navy Technical Bureau and Admiral Y. Hiraga was Director of the Naval Technical Research Laboratory. The former was responsible for many designs including the Mogami class cruisers, Fubuki class destroyers and the Tomodzoru class TB's.

Click to Enlarge Fujimoto Design
Fujimoto Design 35,000 tons standard 9-16" (3 x 3) 12-6.1"/60 (6 x 2) 26 knots

Admiral Hiraga was responsible for many of the designs of the 8-8 Program. In 1931, the Battleship Holiday was extended so these designs were not proceeded with. The next serious design contemplated by Japan was the YAMATO, which incorporated several features from these designs. These models are very impressive looking and are currently available at Alnavco.

Click to Enlarge Hiraga Design
Hiraga Design 35,000 tons standard 10-16"/45 (3 x 2)(2 x 2) 16-6.1"/60 (4 x 2) (8 x 1) 26 knots

Bob Weymouth

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