Akira Yoshimura's dramatic reconstruction of the birth of the Musashi portrays a nation preparing for total war. Under these extreme conditions, courage, genius, and integrity coexisted with brutality, folly, and paranoia. During the more than four years it took to build and outfit it, shipyard engineers and their Navy mentors were faced with seemingly insurmountable technical problems and plagued by natural calamities and the constant fear of espionage. The solutions they found to each successive crisis were sometimes brilliant, sometimes absurd. Battleship Musashi is a tribute to the men who achieved this engineering marvel and a testament to the excesses of bureaucratic militarism.

"Originally published by Shinchosha, Ltd., under the title Senkan Musashi."--Title page verso. "Previously published as Build the Musashi: The Birth and Death of the World's Greatest Battleship."--Title page verso. Includes index.

Prologue -- 1. Boom to bust and back -- 2. Oath of secrecy -- 3. Birth of a titan -- 4. Nowhere to hide -- 5. Fear at midnight -- 6. The monster's backbone -- 7. The first rivet -- 8. The lost blueprint -- 9. The mystery solved -- 10. Red chalk and loose lips -- 11. A flash in the dark -- 12. Bad dreams -- 13. Final preparations -- 14. In the belly of the beast -- 15. Day of the dead -- 16. Glimpse of the abyss -- 17. A delicate balance -- 18. The launch -- 19. Fire! -- 20. Preparing for battle -- 21. An imperial visit -- 22. Riders on the storm -- 23. Attack! -- 24. Operation Sho -- 25. The battle -- 26. The sinking -- 27. Captain's log -- Epilogue -- Index -- Appendix.