A Glorious Way to Die: The Kamikaze Mission of the Battleship Yamato, April 1945

The Yamato was the biggest battleship ever built. First of a class of superships built secretly before World War II, she was the proudest technological achievement of a nation newly emerged as a naval power. Yet before she was commissioned, in December 1941, the Japanese themselves rendered the battleship obsolete by their carrier strike against Pearl Harbor. Throughout most of the Pacific war the pride of the Imperial Japanese navy was relegated to minor roles - until the American invasion of Okinawa. It was then, with the navy whittled away, that a desperate Japanese High Command decided to throw Yamato into the battle. The mighty ship was ordered to attack the invading force - the greatest assemblage of warships the world had ever seen - backed only by eight escorts. No planes or pilots could be spared to provide air cover. Combat directives made it clear that this was a one-way Kamikaze mission.