hybrid carriers

[Delphinium]

From what I've been reading, the Japanese never ended up with the planes, or pilots for these 2 and they just ended up being part of the infamous "carrier decoy force" at Leyte.

[Tiornu]

In the wake of the Midway shock, the Japanese started frenetically on a series of redesigns. As far as I know, every old battleship was treated to some sort of CV idea, though I'm not sure about the Nagatos. For the Ises, suggestions included one-third conversions, two-thirds conversions, and complete conversions. This last would have involved a Junyo-ish island and a bow that, in profile, looks to me rather like Soryu's. I'm guessing the heavy AA battery would have been sixteen guns. The extended hybrid with its four 14in guns looks very much like the historical conversion but with the flattop extended all the way to the funnel, which stood between the paired catapults. Heavy AA mounts in sponsons along the flight deck and in the forward superstructure totaled sixteen guns.
It should be remembered that, at the time of the Fuso design, battleships commonly resembled "turret farms" with five or more mounts. (Agincourt: fourteen guns in seven centerline turrets!) The Japanese persisted with this arrangement longer than anyone else; this provided lots of redundancy and lots of powder trains.

[tsimmonds]

http://hush.gooside.com/name/i/Ise/Ise.html

Here's a link to some nice Ise drawings, silhouettes, and photos....looks like a complete history of the ships modifications, but the text is in Japanese.

[Tomo]

Yes, there was a plan to convert Fuso class to CV.
I have ever read that a blueprint was completed but It was stopped because of lack of time/resources.
I don't know Nagato & Kongo class.

The man who is living in front of my parents' home was crew of YAMASHIRO. He was rescued by US navy when YAMASHIRO was sunk. Only 10 or 20 crews are rescued at that time(means other crew are dead).
He never try to tell about war till now...

[kaleun]

Hi Tomo.
I had never seen one of your posts before. Welcome to the forum.
It is refreshing to hear from "the other side"
I for one would be very interested in opinions and stories from the Japanese side. I don't believe that many are available in English, except for Sakai's and Fuchida's books.