China, which survived the Japanese in WW2 only to be submerged in the Communist wave shortly thereafter, is stirring the somnolent Japanese into an action the Japanese public does not want to do, namely re-arm. With the American umbrella gone, the Japanese find themselves alone against a resurgent China. And so they build the ships again, only this time without the pagoda mast.

Was it just in the past

That the pagoda mast

Saw the dawn in the South China Sea

When the fierce IJN

Ruled the waves now and then

Heavy cruisers and fast sleek DD

Yes the bright Rising Sun

Snapping proud on the run

From Rabaul all the way to the Slot

Where so many then found

The name Iron Bottom Sound

Was for them a cold watery plot

Now the band plays again

The renamed IJN

May return to the South China Sea

Modern ships sleek and fast

Sans the pagoda mast

With an ancient foe off to the lee