Every hobby has a "holy grail."  For us American rubber duck collectors, it's usually the Tolo Duck.  For those who collect baseball cards, it's the American Tobacco Company's T206 Honus Wagner.  Car collectors have different tastes... for one, it'll be a cherry '68 Mustang fastback, but another will only look at Dinos... for whatever reason.  But when you're an amateur military historian of the Pacific War like I claim to be, what's the goal?  Kaigun, Sunburst, Shattered Sword, The First Team, A Glorious Page In Our History... all of these are on The Shelf.  In the comments of that post, CXT mentioned a title I wasn't familiar with.  I looked into it and immediately began salivating: it seemed like it pushed every activation button in my brain at once.  Full of histories and detailed to the extreme, it was exactly what I look for in a mil-hist book.  That it's also considered one of the best references of all time helped a lot, too... until I took a look at the prices.

Holy jumpin' guacamole on a stick, $300???  Yeah, not so much.  However, I kept an eye on the Amazon price listing... every now and again, it'd drop to $200, and I vowed to myself that if I had the cash on hand if the price fell to $150, I'd go for it.  It still felt ridiculous spending that much on a book, but then I realized that college students spend twice that much and more on books all the time.  Eh, whatever, it's only money.  Last Friday, I clicked the link to Amazon, and...

Holy jumpin' frijoles in a hot tub, $150.  I couldn't click on the purchasing link fast enough.  Today, this Holy Grail that has been out of print for at least 10 years and had a list price of $75 in 1997... was delivered unto my hands.

And just what is this paragon of the mil-hist world?



Okay, it's a book, big deal, right?  The picture above does not do it justice, my friends.  Taking over 50 man-years to research, Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War is the final word in both the technical aspects and the operational histories of every single cruiser that served the IJN in and around the Pacific War.  Need to know exactly what was upgraded and modified differently between the Oi and the Kuma in 1935?  Just open this book.  Are you wondering just how to rebuild a 1938 Type 93 mod 1 torpedo?  The plans are printed on pg 247.  If there's anything you could possibly want to know about the IJN cruiser fleet, this is the book for you.

This is not a small book.  It falls into the category of "coffee-table book," because if you screw a set of legs into it, you can use it as a coffee table.  It weighs in at 8.5 pounds and nearly three inches thick, for heaven's sake.  It's a danger to young children and small animals.

It's huge, is what I'm saying, but you would expect it to be.  It's a great thing, and I'm proud to add it to the collection... and join the ranks of the elite and/or the desperately geeky.  If you feel a need to join the few, the proud, the owners of Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War, there's still a copy available at Amazon for $150.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:00 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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