With some external post insight, their final complement of 12 14-inch guns with 4 firing fore and aft was not satisfactory compared to the US solution of having six guns massed in the chase or retreat with triple turrets (like on the Pennsylvania and New Mexico classes) or compared to the British solution of mounting larger caliber guns. In terms of armament, there was an emphasis on the power of their broadside. They were by then among the most powerful warships in the world, and in many ways, the very embodiment of imperial ambitions in Asia. The Fuso and Yamashiro were laid down in 1912, launched in 1914-1915 in Kure and Yokosuka, and commissioned in 1917. To house her huge machinery able to deliver more than 26 knots, the hull was massive. IJN Yamashiro in 1917, testing anti-torpedo nets at Yokosuka NyD (Colorized by Hirootoko JR)
In the end, they succeeded in creating the first Asian fast battleship, in line with the new breed designed in UK and Germany (The Queen Elisabeth and Baden classes). Their speed was stepped up to the next level, reaching near that of a battlecruiser, while still having the classic protection of a dreadnought. Yet, their designers still attempted to push the limits with the new ships. Their plans had been designed in Japan for the first time, and thus didn’t have many changes made to their design based on combat experience as the nation had not participated in any major dreadnought-era battles to that point. The first Japanese-designed super-dreadnought: These powerful dreadnoughts were far-off derivatives of the HMS Dreadnought in 1906.
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