Japanese Pagoda Towers: What's inside them?

Fuso after second reconstruction.

Many poeple have asked what purpose the pagoda powers served on reconstructed Japanese battleships. Basically, they were an effort to fit as much "stuff' into as small of a footprint as possible. These ships had a shortage of deck space, so designers had to go "up" rather than "out". They evolved and grew over the years, as new platforms were added to handle new equipement or functions. Yamishiro's pagoda was the tallest , being a coupel feet taller than Fuso's, and about 4 feet taller than the US cage masts on the 'standard' battleships.

Using Fuso as an example, and going from bottom to top, the different levels of the pagoda mast contain:

Forecastle Deck level- standby room, small arms locker, radio-telephone room, battery room, fresh water tank, officer's water closet, petty officer's water closet, enlisted water closet

Shelter Deck level- Forward radio room, telephone room, standby room, stock room, store room, base for derrick for ship's boats, wash-deck locker

Lower Bridge level- seawater tank, fresh water tank, storeroom, base of derrick for ship's aircraft

Conning Tower level- conning tower, main gun spare command room, commander's standby room, captain's ready room, chart store, chart room

Upper Bridge Deck level- communication standby room, electrical room, 3.5 meter rangefinder base, quad 13.2mm machine gun mount, ammo storage, port and starboard secondary gun fire commanding rooms, secondary gun director, 12cm lookout direction panel, wash deck locker, small signaling searchlight

Compass Bridge level- main compass, gyromagnetic compass, chart table, officer's greeting room, transmission room, telegraph room, standby room, lookout platform, internal ship signaling room, backup compass

Lower Lookout Platform level- anti-aircraft fire control platform, signaling platform, lookout station, 7.7mm machine guns, large signaling searchlight platform base, operations room, store room, high0-angle AA fire director, 4.5 meter rangefinder, signaling position, signal flag locker, washdeck locker

Forward Searchlight Platform level- navigation rangefinder, signal searchlights, telephone room, vertical deflection measuring stand, quad 13.2mm machine guns

Battle Bridge level- double magnetic compass, chart table, compass, signal lamps

Upper Lookout platform- towing light, secondary gun director, lookout direction panel, rangefinder for secondary guns

Lookout and Searchlight Control level- searchlight control room, daylight signal lantern

Sokuteki Ban level- fire control computer, direction measurement measuring panel, target course and speed measuring stand, target tracing stand, signal lamp, deck lamp

Fire Command Platform level- spotting sight stand, radio equipment

Main Gun Fire Command level- main gun director tower with main director on top