Japan Sent Its Mightiest Battleship on a One-Way Mission — It Never Reached Okinawa

America’s WWII Legacy

America’s WWII Legacy

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Japan sent its mightiest battleship on a one-way mission on 6 April 1945 — and America erased it in under 2 hours. The Yamato displaced 72,800 tons, carried 9 guns of 18.1 inches, and wore 16 inches of belt armour. She was ordered to beach herself on Okinawa and fire until her magazines were empty. She sank 200 miles short, at a cost to the United States Navy of 10 aircraft and 12 men.

This documentary reconstructs Operation Ten-Gō from the record: the 1934 treaty withdrawal that produced a ship deliberately too wide for the Panama Canal, the secrecy at Kure Naval Arsenal, the failure of the Mark 13 aerial torpedo and the wind-tunnel redesign that fixed it, the lessons Task Force 58 drew from the sinking of Musashi in the Sibuyan Sea, Vice Admiral Seiichi Itō's objection to the mission, and the 386-aircraft strike that concentrated every torpedo into a single flank on the afternoon of 7 April 1945.

Built from after-action reports, loss tables and survivor accounts rather than the legend.

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