In the 1930s, as Japan withdrew from the Washington Naval Treaty and pursued an aggressive expansionist policy, its naval planners conceived a battleship class unlike any before. Knowing they could not match American shipbuilding capacity, the Imperial Japanese Navy sought instead to build ships that could outgun and outlast multiple opponents. The result was the Yamato class, displacing over 70,000 tons at full load and armed with nine 46 cm Type 94 guns—the largest ever mounted on a warship. Construction of the lead ship, Yamato, began at Kure Naval Arsenal in 1937 under strict secrecy, with the dockyard itself expanded and hidden from view to accommodate her enormous hull. She was launched in 1940 and commissioned a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Yamato began her career as the flagship of the Combined Fleet. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto directed operations from her bridge during the Battle of Midway in June 1942, though the battle ended in disaster for Japan. After Musashi replaced her as flagship in 1943, Yamato spent much of the war moving between bases at Truk and Kure, responding to American advances. She suffered a torpedo strike from a U.S. submarine in late 1943, leading to repairs and a major refit that added radar and dozens of anti-aircraft guns. At the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944 she was present but did not fire her main guns. Her only chance to use her massive 18-inch guns in surface action came during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. As part of a powerful Japanese force attempting to disrupt the American invasion of the Philippines, Yamato engaged the escort carriers and destroyers of “Taffy 3” off Samar. Her group managed to sink several U.S. ships, including the escort carrier Gambier Bay and destroyers Johnston and Hoel, but air strikes forced the Japanese to retreat before reaching the vulnerable transports. By 1945, Japan’s fleet was crippled by fuel shortages and repeated losses. In April, with the Americans assaulting Okinawa, Yamato was sent on a one-way mission: to beach herself and serve as a coastal gun platform until destroyed. U.S. forces spotted the task force south of Kyushu, and on 7 April waves of carrier aircraft struck. Torpedoes and bombs overwhelmed her defenses, and she exploded and sank with most of her crew, ending the career of the largest battleship ever built. Yamato’s destruction symbolized the eclipse of the battleship era by air power in the Pacific War.

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Battleship Yamato