The Yamato class battleships of the IJN were the largest battleships ever built, and this book examines the Yamato piece by piece. The book was copyrighted in 1988. The author, Janusz Skulski, has obviously put years of detailed research into this book. This is not a story. The different sections of the book (A-L) focus on the different aspects of the ship. For example, section C is "superstructure." The use of the term "scale" shows readers how big components of the ships were. For example, the barbette for the 18" guns is 4" in diameter in the book with a 1/150 scale. A side profile of the ship fills two 9" square pages and the scale marker says 1/600 scale. There are only a few pages of text at the beginning, and a good photo section. The text is entirely factual and deals with the ship rather than the human side of IJN battleship operations. The ship is "taken apart" in a most thorough level of detail. It is just like you have gone back in time and place and are reviewing the construction blueprints for approval! Unfortunately, the author could not obtain much machinery information, but that wasn't his fault. There was no research information available about machinery, but the other areas (general arrangement, superstructure, armament, fittings, rig, aircraft, ship's boats, and condition of the wreck) made up for this. I give the author and the book 5 stars because the level of detail is extremely high. Interlibrary loan is your best bet to read this book, as the title is out of print. This is a must have book for all serious battleship fans.