Silverghost

What is this white protection made from? Who knows?

Nick

Looks like the crew's hammocks. After they had been washed they were hung out to dry in the sun.
During the age of sail folded hammocks were used to protect important areas like the helm from shot and shrapnel. Perhaps the Akagi's gun crews tied them there as protection from incoming aircraft.

Silverghost

thnx. very interesting version!

Bucephalus

The Akagi was, in many ways, already obsolete by the start of World War II. Almost 20 years earlier, she had been built as sort of a "hybrid" ship that was originally designed as a battle cruiser, but later was converted to a carrier. Her wooden deck was supposedly removable to allow for her use as a gun platform, had they ever decided to reverse the conversion. The Akagi was undergunned with an odd flight deck layout - and I suspect that her unconventional port-side superstructure was rather "thin-skinned" (it was an add-on to the original battle cruiser design, and to put a heavy armored superstructure that high off the waterline probably would have created a serious center-of-gravity problem for this ship). These pads made of hammocks or bedrolls might have provided some psychological benefit for the crew, but I doubt that they were of any legitimate ballistic protection. In fact, the Akagi was severely damaged by dive bombers in the Battle of Midway; her wooden deck caught fire and burned uncontrollably. The Akagi was determined to have been damaged beyond repair, so the Japanese navy scuttled her.

Komrade

Expanding on what Bucephalus said on the Akagi originally being built as a Battle-Cruiser as an interesting note more than anything else. One of the provisions of the Washington Naval Arms Treaty was that hulls being laid down as battle-cruisers or battleships could be finished as aircraft carriers. Hence why the Japanese had an early advantage in carrier numbers.