Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Yamato Memorial (
大和慰霊塔
) is a lonely memorial, but sacred and moving, for out at sea from
this place thousands of men lost their lives in service to their country.
It never happened. Exiting Japan's inland sea, the ship and its escorts were spotted by
American submarines. On April 7th, attacking in three waves, US dive bombers pounded the
Yamato
with bombs and rockets while torpedoes pummeled the port side. Broken, battered
and listing badly, the crew was ordered to abandon ship. As the great battleship capsized, it
created a suction that drew hundreds of swimming crewmen back towards it to drown. As the
ship began its final death roll, an enormous explosion ripped through it as fires had reached
the ammunitions magazines. The resulting mushroom cloud was over 4 miles (6.4 kilomet-
ers) high and witnessed hundreds of miles/kilometers away on Kyūshū. Of the
Yamato
's crew
of 2,778, only 269 survived. The US Navy lost 10 aircraft and 12 airmen. Five of the other
warships were also destroyed and several thousands of men on those ships perished as well.
This photo was taken from a carrier plane from the USS Yorktown shortly after the Yamato was destroyed
by bombs and torpedoes and just before it sank.
