USS New Jersey BB-62 Model

This model of one of the last and largest American battleships, USS New Jersey (BB-62), was on display at the Shizuoka Hobby Show.  Commissioned in 1943, it was the most-awarded battleship in American history, earning a total of nineteen battlestars.  As with other Iowa-class battleships, its main armament was three turrets of three 16-inch guns.  USS New Jersey entered World War II in January 1944, sailing into the Pacific to attack the Japanese defenses of the Marshall Islands, Eniwetok, and Kwajalein.  As Admiral Spruance's flagship, it shelled Japan's Truk naval base and led a task force that sank almost forty Japanese warships and auxiliary ships.  During the Battle of the Philippine Sea, it provided an essentially impenetrable flak screen with its 130 anti-aircraft guns, facilitating the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" that crippled Japanese naval aviation.

In August 1944, USS New Jersey became Admiral "Bull" Halsey's flagship for the liberation of the Philippines, which included attacks on Okinawa and Taiwan as well as the Japanese defenses of the Philippine islands themselves.  Unfortunately, Admiral Halsey fell for the Japanese navy's decoy during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October, leaving only a few destroyers and escort ships of "Taffy 3" to repel Admiral Kurita's Center Force.  Worried that the Philippines would be lost, Admiral Nimitz sent this message to USS New Jersey:

TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS

The phrases at each end were meant to be random phrases to deceive enemy spies, but Admiral Halsey read the message as "Where is, repeat, where is Task Force 34?  The world wonders," which he interpreted as an insult.  Wallowing in his emotions, Admiral Halsey retreated to his cabin and wept until his chief of staff convinced him to compose himself.  USS New Jersey turned around and sped back to Leyte Gulf, by which time the battle off Samar was over, as the Japanese fleet had retreated after losing eight ships to the outmatched but determined little ships of "Taffy 3."  Admiral Halsey kept his job, but Admiral Lee was quite sharp in his criticism, writing:

No battle damage was incurred nor inflicted on the enemy by vessels while operating as Task Force Thirty-Four.

Later in the fall of 1944, Admiral Halsey commanded USS New Jersey to weaken the defense of Luzon, liberating more of the Philippines and shooting down several kamikaze suicide airplanes that threatened the American aircraft carriers.  In December, it was caught in a typhoon, but was able to return to its base on Christmas Eve.  Admiral Badger replaced Admiral Halsey in January 1945, commanding USS New Jersey during the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.  After Japan surrendered in August 1945, USS New Jersey sailed into Tokyo Bay to serve as the American occupation's naval headquarters. 

The end of World War II did not bring about world peace, and the U.S. Navy had to reactivate USS New Jersey in 1950 to support the United Nations in the Korean War.  It shelled North Korea throughout the war, returning home in 1953 and spending the next decade and a half as a training ship.  America went to war again in 1967, this time with Vietnam, by which time USS New Jersey was the only active battleship in the world.  It shelled Vietnam until 1969, when it was mothballed to join other inactive ships.  However, it was revived by President Reagan's naval expansion program in 1981.  As with the other Iowa-class battleships, it was fitted with missile launchers, though a proposal to remove the third gun turret to create either a missile-launching battleship or Ise-type "aviation battleship" was rejected.

USS New Jersey's final years in service included the 1983-1984 shelling of Lebanon after terrorist attacks on the American embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks and some patrols of the Pacific Ocean, though it was decommissioned before it could be used against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War like USS Missouri and USS Wisconsin were.  In 2000, it was towed to Camden, New Jersey, becoming a museum ship like its sisters.  Unusually for battleships, all four Iowa-class ships have been preserved, as well as some other U.S. Navy battleships.  In contrast, only one Japanese battleship has survived: Admiral Togo's flagship in the Russo-Japanese War, HIJMS Mikasa.

PS: The two other models are the German battleship Bismarck and a figurine of a Japanese Kongo-class "battleship girl" from Kantai Collection.  I wonder how USS New Jersey, nicknamed "Big J" and "Black Dragon," would look in Kancolle.