England, Japan, Italy, France, and the United States agreed to place a limit on the size of warships. The Yamato would be much larger than the agreement. An extra large dry dock was dug in order to build the warship. A high fence was erected, in order to shield it from everyone. The construction consumed 6,153,030 (Six million one hundred fifty three thousand and thirty) rivets. 7,507,536 (Seven million five hundred seven thousand, five hundred thirty six) welding rods. These rods produced 1,521,598 (one million, five hundred twenty one thousand five hundred ninety eight) feet of welding. The largest weld block was 36 feet high and weighed 80 tons. All of this massive construction came to 64,000 tons. While our largest battleship, the U.S.S. Missouri, only weighed 45,000 tons. But on this special mission, the Yamato

topped 73,000 tons, for many more guns and ammunition were aboard.

The Yamato had so many guns, it was called a giant floating fortress. (12 six inch guns, 12 five inch guns, 35 triple 25mm guns, 34 double 13mm guns, 6 double 2.7 CM HA/4A guns, and 9 eighteen inch guns in

triple turrets. Now these eighteen inch guns were absolutely awesome, our biggest gun on the Missouri were sixteen inch. The triple turrets alone were as big as a whole destroyer, (over 300 feet). The eighteen inch gun barrels were almost 70 feet long... Wow! Just the bullet was 18 inches in diameter, and stood slightly over 6 feet tall. If the bullet was armor-piercing, it weighed 3,245 lbs. These were used to destroy enemy ships. The type 3 bullets had time fuses and exploded into fragments. These were used to shoot down enemy planes. They would break into 6,000 pieces and scatter in all directions.

One volley once shot down an entire formation of ten planes. To fire this bullet it took almost 700 lbs. of black powder. Stored onboard the Yamato were 1,200 of these giant bullets.

The Japanese super Battleship Yamato was indeed a fantastic and majestic warship. Her hull was painted a silver-white, with the Imperial Chrysanthemum on the front of her bow. (Sailors have always called their ship "she" even when it has a man's name, it is an old Navy tradition). Most of the sailors even thought she was beautiful. The teakwood planks that covered the deck were scrubbed and polished daily. The superstructure was nearly 13 stories high, it looked like a huge pagoda.

The Yamato was a symbol of the nation of Japan. Back in the 7th century A.D. Japan was called by the emperor Jomei and many of the farmers, "Yamato." Now on the battleship Yamato the last hope of the nation would rise or fall. Also, onboard the battleship was Vice Admiral Seiichi Ito and his complete staff.

Admiral Ito was commander of the whole second fleet. When the Yamato left Japan, the crew were told that Okinawa was the destination. Okinawa was an island less than 400 miles from Japan.

An air base in our hands there would be a great threat to Japan. We were already invading Okinawa when the Battleship and escorts were dispatched. They were overjoyed, for here was their chance to crush the invasion. But they were also told that the code name of the operation was "Ten-Ichi" (Heaven Number One). The object would be to attack the U.S. fleet and transports in the Okinawa harbor. After inflicting maximum damage on the ships, the Yamato would be beached. The battleship would have only enough fuel for a one way trip. After being beached, it's guns would serve as additional artillery for the Japanese defending forces. Surplus crew members would go ashore to reinforce the garrison. In other words, the huge super battleship Yamato would become a giant Kamikaze!. Kamikaze means "Divine winds," which saved Japan from defeat in an earlier war. But during World War ll. young Japanese pilots were trained to fly their airplanes on a one way sortie. The planes were stripped of all guns and armament, then loaded with high explosives. The pilots would deliberately crash dive the plane into the enemy warship. The first day, over the Okinawa harbor, 355 kamikazes were sent into the allied fleet. Before the fighting had ended, a total of 1465 kamikazes had met their fate, they sunk 26 allied ships and damaged 164 more. The battle finally became a grim struggle of wills. The Japanese were fighting to die, while we were fighting to live. Thank the good Lord ... we won. And as for the Kamikaze Battleship Yamato, it never came close to

reaching Okinawa.

Less than 100 miles from Japan, the giant super battleship Yamato was spotted. The high Japanese admirals declared that it was unsinkable. Three different waves of aircraft from our carriers attacked the Japanese fleet. First the destroyer Asashimo was sunk, and then another destroyer, the Hamakaze. Then the other two destroyers, the Isokazi and the Kasumi went down. The Japanese cruiser Yahagi was a blazing inferno, as it exploded and sank into the depths. In spite of all this, most of the sailors onboard the battleship Yamato were not concerned. After all, they reasoned, this battleship is unsinkable.

However.... Anything that man can build, man can also destroy. There were so many airplanes swarming around the Yamato. She was like a sitting duck. Fifteen armor piercing bombs and nineteen torpedo hits sealed its fate. After one hour and forty two minutes, the mighty warship capsized. It flipped completely over, bottoms up. Then the unsinkable super battleship Yamato exploded with a loud bang. A red column of smoke and fire shot up through the clouds. It was at least a thousand feet high. Vice Admiral Seiichi Ito, commander of the whole fleet, locked himself to the compass binnacle. As captain of the ship, he was following an old Imperial Navy tradition. The Yamato sank so quickly that many sailors were trapped below. Today 3,063 crewmen are entombed still onboard the unsinkable super battleship Yamato. As it lies in 2,700 feet of water at the bottom of the east China sea. The Yamato's sister battleship, the Musashi had also been sunk in October 1944. It took 1,100 crewmen down with it. Perhaps this avenges the death of the 1,177 crewman still entombed onboard our battleship, the USS Arizona at the bottom of Pearl Harbor!!
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