Cleaning out the back spaces of MAL Hobby in Irving TX. Buried on a shelf in the office (Dad & Junior were both pack rats)
I came upon these portfolios of Japanese warship drawings. All annotations and titles are in Japanese. Can anyone translate for me, please.
Any suggestion as to value.
I wonder if Tosh over in aircraft would know or have access to the resources?
Another thing to try is a local or nearby college or community college in their language department. But drop Tosh a PM for sure.
I have difficulty in translating Kanji (Chinese characters) I can read the simpler Hiragana and Katakana (Romaji). Sorry sir, but the local colleges would Definately be able to assist.
Your Friend, Toshi
I uses this japanese ocr site:
http://www.i2ocr.com/free-online-japanese-ocr
And this translation site:
First one:
Air battleship ISE Aircraft carrier Hiryu Heavy cruiser Nachi, Light cruiser Kitakami Destroyer “Arashio” Destroyer Bamboo Submarine "Isojyu No. Station submersible “Signal” "No. 14 Gunkan Fushimi “/ Special Transport Ship” S B Boat D " Refund commentary Yasuo Labor Department, Michio Ishibashi Noriki Suzuki, Masahiko Sena, Haruo Takahashi, N Tsukuo drawing Published by Nameshobo
Stand by for 2nd
Supervised by the “David Heavy Cruiser” Seaplane carrier "Nisshin Station Destroyer “Yunun / Okinami 0 Mille with AE Laying ship Yasuo Shinabe Tohikohiko Sena Reconstruction Eken Ishibashi, Mizuno Mizuno Heaven and Umeno Kazu ・ Haruo Takahashi 5.Tatsuo Kato
No guarantees on accuracy, just leveraging tech 
Might fo better if you square up the image and crop to just the text
Wow, that’s stunning!
As a couple of others have suggested, you might try a local university. You could try a community college, but I doubt they’ll have anyone there that can help you. Don’t get me wrong, community college profs are great, shoot my wife is one. It’s just that you’ll have a better chance of finding someone with the language skills needed at a four year college.
Don’t forget to try the history department as well as the language department. Asian specialists need to be able to read and understand the language of that they study.
Lastly, call and make an appointment. Undergrads at places like SMU, the University of North Texas, UNT, and so forth generally are not even allowed to see a full professor just willy nilly. That said, many of them do like showing off their hard earned skills.
I hope this helps. Raymond
Thank you.
From a reply on another forum, they are what they appear to be, prints & drawings of IJN ships. The full 5 set package recently sold at auction in Japan for 23000 ¥.
Need to dig back in and find the rest of the series