Favourite Photos: JS Izumo (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition))

Japan: The Basics contains many photographs (all taken by me) to help with the discussions in the book. I have previously done individual posts on each of the photos that were in the first edition that are not in the second edition (a list of all the photographs in the first edition can be found here). I am now doing posts on all of the photos that appear in the second edition of Japan: The Basics using the tag Photo in Japan: The Basics 2 (all of the photographs can be found here). I’ve already done a series of posts on all the photos that appear in both editions of the book, and a series of posts on those photos where there was an equivalent picture in the first edition but which has been updated for the second edition. This is the next post in a series of posts about those photos which are new to Japan: The Basics.

The following picture is Figure 7.3a in the second edition of Japan: The Basics, and also fits within my series of Favourite Photos.

The photo is of JS Izumo (DDH-183) Izumo class helicopter carrier.

I took this photograph during a trip to Yokosuka in January 2023. That morning I had already been to Enoshima and Kamakura (seeing the Great Buddha and going back to my favourite shrine in Japan, Zeniarai Benten). When I got to Yokosuka (my first time to the city), I started off by having lunch – which I discuss in the post Eating by a Sub in Yokosuka. I then walked around taking photographs, such as this one, before taking a boat trip during which I took many more photographs of the Japan Maritime Self Defence vessels, as well as some US Navy ones. Some of these photos also appear in Japan: The Basics (see JS Akizuki and JS Suzunami (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition)), The Maritime Self Defence Force Submarines (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition)), and The Maritime Self Defence Force – JS Kumano (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition))).

You can see more about when I took the photo in a Highlight on Instagram.

As much as I hate the idea of war as a means to settle disputes, I do like to look at naval ships. I don’t know whether this comes from the name association with what was once the British navy’s flag ship, HMS Hood, that my ‘house’ at school for about seven years was ‘navy’, that ships like this appear in favourite movies of mine (such as Top Gun and Under Siege) or merely the shape of the ships themselves. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed my visit to Yokosuka and the photos work so well in discussing issues relating to ‘nationalism’ and even what constitutes ‘defence’, and whether the SDF are constitutional.