Killing the Yamato 4/7/1945

Good read about the decision to send
the battleship Yamato to take on the
huge American fleet at Okinawa.
I have read in other sources that the
US public was rather indifferent about
her sinking as we had sunk so many of
Japan's ships by that stage of the war
that sinking even their biggest ship
was barely a newsworthy event.
By the way, the captain of the light
cruiser Yahagi which was sunk along
with Yamato was Tameichi Hara who was
an outstanding destroyer captain and
pretty much "wrote the book" on night
time torpedo tactics.
He survived the sinking and was one of
just a handful of his peers to survive
the war.
If you've never read his book 'Japanese
Destroyer Captain' I suggest you do.
It is simply written and very good.
As the Yahagi was going down, Hara was
being pulled under with it and knew he
would not survive. Then he remembered
he had told his young son he would
return and that promise gave him the
extra ounce of strength to claw his way
to the surface.
It was a humanizing glimpse into the
heart of a fearless enemy.
Click here

I have that book. I think his torpedo tactics was one of the reasons the USN took such a beating at Guadalcanal.

Fascinating read. Thanks.

Yamato's, and her sister ship Musashi's, 18.1 inch guns were made in defiance of international treaty that limited warship guns to 16 inches. With them, they could out-range and out-penetrate any other gun on the water. I don't believe either of them sunk another vessel nor even got a shot off at another battleship.

The Japanese withdrew from the Washington Naval Treaty in the 1930s.

Dean

I have read alot about both of these ships over my life. I also enjoyed this article. They were both beautiful ships

(quoted from post at 05:20:20 04/07/18) I have that book. I think his torpedo tactics was one of the reasons the USN took such a beating at Guadalcanal.

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Actually it was way more the US Navy's fault. Or actually the US congress. They adopted neutrality laws and figured it would keep up out of future fighting. Then during the depression they refused to fund the military at a reasonable level. When there is no money, there is little in new equipment and training drops off. The Navy like the rest of the military trying to expand to meet the needs just wasn't ready with equipment or training, not on Dec 7 1941 and not in the opening days of Guadalcanal. Look at it. During the battle of Midway luck and good intel carried the day. But 6 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor the Marines were still flying the Brewster Buffalo, and extremely obsolete fighter......all were lost with no survivors. Even the Navy's newest fighter, the F4F Wildcat was obsolete when it went into service! One Navy fighter ace when ask about how to fight a Zero with an F4F one on one answered "run away, you are out numbered" or words to that effect. Plus the US Navy even admitted that they really lacked in nigh fighting skills when explaining losses at Guadalcanal.

You can jump ahead a few years, the opening days of the Korean war......the US military was getting the snot kicked out of it. Why? In the years after WWII the defense budget had been drastically cut. In the Army platoons were missing whole squads, companies enough men to make up one whole platoon, BN's were missing enough people to make up a whole company. Plus with no money there was no training. It cost money to train!

Rick

The thing is the Yamato was a total suicide mission. She left port with barely enough fuel to get there never mind get home. Here is the history channel story.
history channel

Here is a docudrama how the Japanese look at it. The torpedoes broke her back and she is one the bottom in two pieces. People do not realize how darn big that thing was!!
drama

I think the reason it may have broke in two (if it was found that way I didn't hear about it) is that one of its magazines exploded as it rolled over.

At the time of the sinking the US had no idea how big the Yamato was. It was assumed to be a 45,000 ton battleship with 16" guns. Roughly similar in size the Iowa class battleships. Given its history sinking it was no big deal - it had been credited with sinking a single American ship that been sitting dead in the water when the Yamato closed in an shelled it. It sank like the rest of the Japanese navy.

After the Japanese started building the Yamato class they announced they would not be signers on the 2nd London Naval treaty in 1936. The 1st London Naval Treaty (1930) limited battleship size to 14". The Yamato design was "illegal" when it was laid down but the ship wasn't commissioned until after Japan had withdrawn completely from all arms limitation treaties. The US who did sign the 2nd London Naval Arms treaty took advantage of the "escalator" clause of the treaty to build 16" battleships and did so with the North Carolina class that was designed as a 14" battleship with 3 quadruple 14" turrets but was instead completed with 3 triple 16" turrets.

that is what happened...

i believe you are right the yamato spent so much time at her dock her own sailors referred to her as hotel yamato it was the carriers that carried the day....

i Dispise Computer graphics..The History channel Did a Much better job of telling it like it happened.The above drama is a waste of time to watch and is not historically accurate about the true sacrifices of WAR .It should be discarded , but on the contrary , it is a lame attempt to display and prove hollywood really is b/s computer graphic wizard nuthins that know nuthin about anything . If All Kids Watched That Then in their glorious dreams . Some Cant WAit To Get in a Big WAR like that and be some kind ofphuktuphero. that is nice clean heros' death horshyt , no blood, all clean , The Only suffering you see is anguish on the Japanese faces .terrible FALSE NARRATIVE of drama documentary that is waytogawdam much GLORIFYING WAR beyond the gawdamHaLe that it really is ,,. PEOPLE DIED ,. This Is not somegawddam vidio renactment automatically game resets.this vidio glorifies war. It makes no attempts to justify the deathes of so many GOOD People on All sides that had no choice but to DO or DIE ..

(quoted from post at 22:12:52 04/08/18) i Dispise Computer graphics..The History channel Did a Much better job of telling it like it happened.The above drama is a waste of time to watch and is not historically accurate about the true sacrifices of WAR .It should be discarded , but on the contrary , it is a lame attempt to display and prove hollywood really is b/s computer graphic wizard nuthins that know nuthin about anything . If All Kids Watched That Then in their glorious dreams . Some Cant WAit To Get in a Big WAR like that and be some kind ofphuktuphero. that is nice clean heros' death horshyt , no blood, all clean , The Only suffering you see is anguish on the Japanese faces .terrible FALSE NARRATIVE of drama documentary that is waytogawdam much GLORIFYING WAR beyond the gawdamHaLe that it really is ,,. PEOPLE DIED ,. This Is not somegawddam vidio renactment automatically game resets.this vidio glorifies war. It makes no attempts to justify the deathes of so many GOOD People on All sides that had no choice but to DO or DIE ..

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OK med time. I understand. I'm anti war too. But I also understand that it's a necessary evil too.

As far as what happened and people's outlook about going into battle? Well that's where upbringing and religion come into play. Most of the Japanese service members of the day believed that the emperor was a descendant of a god. They also believed that the highest calling in life was to die in combat for the emperor. That is why so many chose suicide by "banzai" attack. Many of the Japanese were truly shocked when the war was over and we didn't line up all the survivors and execute them.

Rick