Battleship Yamato facts for kids
The Yamato was a Japanese super battleship that served in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. Along with its sister ship, the Musashi, they were the largest battleships ever built.
Super battleship
Yamato was built at Kure, Japan. She entered service on 16 December 1941. It was one of five planned super battleships although only two were built: Yamato and Musashi. The allies had no clue Japan had built these monsters until they were first spotted.
Yamato was huge and displaced 62, 315 tons. Yamato had nine 18-inch guns which were the largest in the world at the time. She was 263 metres (863 ft) long. Yamato's armor was 460 millimetres (18 in) thick. Her guns were her most feared weapons. They fired shells that weighed 3,200 pounds each (the size of a compact car!). They had a range of 44 kilometres (27 mi). Yamato was designed to fight and destroy US battleships. But it never faced one in battle.
1941 – 1945
In the 1920s and 1930s the battleship was the ultimate power in naval warfare. But the Japanese, by their attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 proved aircraft carriers were now the most powerful weapon. This meant battleships were already out of date. When the war started, Yamato was the flagship of the Combined Fleet commander Isoroku Yamamoto. It spent much of 1942 defending Japanese shipping out of Truk. Torpedoed by a US submarine in 1943 it was under repair until 1944. Because attack from the air was now the main threat, Yamato was fitted with additional anti-aircraft guns. In June 1944 Yamato took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. In October Yamato was in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. During the battle she fired her guns at US escort carriers thinking they were full sized carriers. She was attacked by several US destroyers and received some damage. Returning to Japan in November she was again fitted with more anti-aircraft guns. By then Japan no longer had the resources to keep Yamato operating. In 1945, Yamato left for Okinawa as part of the Operation Ten-Go. It was an effort to attack US ships supporting the Battle of Okinawa. But, off the coast of Kagoshima, it was sunk by U.S. aircraft on 7 April.
After The War
After the war, the Yamato became a fascinating subject in Japan and elsewhere. In 1985 her wreckage was located under 340 metres (1,120 ft) of water. It lies on the seabed broken into two sections. The name Yamato lives on in the anime series Space Battleship Yamato.
Cultural significance
Historically, the word "Yamato" was used as a poetic name for Japan; thus, her name became a metaphor for the end of the Japanese empire. In April 1968, a memorial tower was erected at Cape Inutabu on Tokunoshima, an island in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture, to commemorate the lives lost in Operation Ten-Go. In October 1974, Leiji Matsumoto created a television series, Space Battleship Yamato, about rebuilding the battleship as a starship and its interstellar quest to save Earth. The series was a huge success, spawning eight feature films and four more TV series, the most recent of which was released in 2017. The series popularised the space opera. As post-war Japanese tried to redefine the purpose of their lives, Yamato became a symbol of heroism and of their desire to regain a sense of masculinity after their country's defeat in the war. Brought to the United States as Star Blazers, the animated series proved popular and established a foundation for anime in the North American entertainment market. The motif in Space Battleship Yamato was repeated in Silent Service, a popular manga and anime that explores issues of nuclear weapons and the Japan–U.S. relationship. It tells the story of a nuclear-powered super submarine whose crew mutinies and renames the vessel Yamato, in allusion to the World War II battleship and the ideals she symbolises.
In 2005, the Yamato Museum was opened near the site of the former Kure shipyards. Although intended to educate on the maritime history of post Meiji era Japan, the museum gives special attention to its namesake; the battleship is a common theme among several of its exhibits, which includes a section dedicated to Matsumoto's animated series. The centrepiece of the museum, occupying a large section of the ground floor, is a 26.3-metre (86 ft) long model of Yamato (1:10 scale).
In 2005, Toei released a 143-minute movie, Yamato, based on a book by Jun Henmi, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II; Tamiya released special editions of scale models of the battleship in conjunction with the film's release. The film is a tale about the sailors aboard the doomed battleship and the concepts of honour and duty. The film was shown on more than 290 screens across the country and was a commercial success, taking in a record 5.11 billion yen at the domestic box office.
The 2019 Japanese film The Great War of Archimedes (アルキメデスの大戦, Archimedes no Taisen) based on a manga by Norifusa Mita tells the story of a dispute within the Japanese Navy over whether to fund the construction of aircraft carriers or a new battleship that would become Yamato. The film begins with the sinking of Yamato and ends with its commissioning.
Images for kids
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Yamato near the end of her fitting out, 20 September 1941
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Yamato during sea trials, October 1941
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Yamato and Musashi anchored in the waters off of the Truk Islands in 1943
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Yamato after being hit by a bomb during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea on 24 October 1944; the hit did not cause serious damage
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Yamato under attack off Kure on 19 March 1945
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Yamato's senior officers prior to Ten-Go
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Yamato steering to avoid bombs and aerial torpedoes during Operation Ten-Go
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Yamato photographed during the battle by an aircraft from USS Yorktown (CV-10). The battleship is on fire and visibly listing to port.
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The explosion of Yamato's magazines
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See also
In Spanish: Yamato (1941) para niños
