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It’s the dawn of the 7th of April 1945, off the south coast of Japan.
10 shadows stretch across the sea’s surface in the early morning sunshine.
A formation, breaking through the waves, onwards to their fate. In the center is a giant.
A 72 thousand ton behemoth. It’s a battleship bigger than anything that’s come before or since.
Armed with 9 18-inch cannons firing 3,000 pound shells, 16 inches of armor across the waterline,
and secondary weapons bigger than the main armament of the destroyers around her,
she’s the pride of the Japanese Imperial Navy,
the symbol of the Japanese’s unwavering resolve – the Yamato.
On board Admiral Ito Seiichi looks on from his command seat,
supervising the flurry of coordinated and well-practiced activity before him
with the characteristic calculating coldness of any good Japanese Officer.
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Back on the Yamato, their mission is simple and brutal.
Operation Ten-Go involves the entire fleet charging the American ships
providing artillery support to the invasion of Okinawa.
They are to throw themselves straight through the enemy, beach all 10 ships ashore, and fight to the last.
Ito despises the plan. It’s wasteful at a time when the nation can't spare an ounce of metal,
but the Emperor has spoken, and a loyal Japanese officer, he is prepared to passionately fulfill orders to the end,
just like all the brave men around him.
But that doesn’t make the reality that he won’t return to his family any less painful.
Things are going smoothly when an officer calls to him,
relaying that an American flying boat has been spotted shadowing them,
Ito orders to open fire and a handful of anti-aircraft guns come to life,
but the plane hides behind clouds before any of the gunners can judge distance and escapes unscathed.
The guns fall silent, and the bad news reaches him. He doesn’t react and the fleet continues onwards.
The morning passes and the day carries on when the bridge receives more bad news.
A Japanese-held island communicates that over 250 American war planes are headed straight for the ships.
Tension looms over the bridge as eyes fall over Admiral Ito.
He takes a deep breath. It’s exactly what he expected, and exactly what they aren’t prepared for.
He cedes strategic command to Captain Kosaku Aruga and retreats to his seat.
Meanwhile, sailor Kazuhiro Fukumoto is passing time on the deck with some friends.
He is young and unafraid. After all, what is there to fear with the power of the mighty Yamato on your side?
Then, the alarms blare.
The friends scatter and immediately run to their battle stations.
Kazuhiro runs across the deck, evading other rushing sailors as he rushes for his post on the opposite side of the ship.
Anti-air weapons rise towards the sky, locked and loaded.
The gunners keep a watchful eye, scanning the never-ending blanket of clouds. Then, everything falls silent.
There is a hum of distant engine noises in the sky, spiking the nerves of everyone on deck.
Gunners grip their controls, aware they are staring at the angels of death, determined to fight to the bitter end.
The noises get louder... and louder...
In a flash a wave of warplanes pierce through the clouds, diving straight towards the mighty ship.
The cacophony of anti-aircraft weapons roars and streaks of shining tracers fire into the sky.
It’s a swarm of warplanes, dozens after dozens fall upon the mighty battleship, braving the wall of Japanese lead.
The gunners fire non-stop towards their targets, giving it their all. But they do little.
The fighters respond in kind.
A hailstorm of .50 caliber bullets tears through the deck, ripping through metal and people alike.
Shrapnel and ricochets fly in every which way as the enemy zooms over their heads.
Anti-aircraft guns spin in all directions, gunners tracking their own targets without orders.
Muzzle flashes and fumes take hold of the lower superstructure as everything is fired into the sky.
Kazuhiro can hear the chaos unfolding behind him as he hurries into the lower deck.
He reaches the damage control station and barges into the room.
Inside he finds his superior and a few fellow sailors, sitting patiently, waiting to be summoned.
Nervously, he joins them in silence, listening the gunfire and explosions that are happening overhead.
Back outside the sky is alight with tracers.
The anti-aircraft gunners are struggling, planes come down from the clouds, strafe, and disappear back into the sky
just as fast as they appeared, leaving them little time to react and take a good shot. There’s just too many.
Then a massive explosion sends shockwaves across the deck.
The main batteries of the Yamato fire into the sky.
Special beehive shells explode into the air creating a giant cloud of burning phosphorus shards.
The big weapons though are completely incapable of tracking enemy aircraft in such low flight.
The strafing runs do not falter, bullets and bombs keep raining down mercilessly.
Exposed anti air gunners suffer greatly, they fall in droves with every attack.
Brave souls dash across the exposed deck to replace their fallen brothers only to suffer the same fate.
The attack ends as suddenly as it began, the planes simply disappearing through the clouds and not coming back.
In their wake they leave utter devastation.
The deck is covered in men, bullet holes, shrapnel, and blood, and a fire burns in the superstructure.
Despite the human suffering, the ship itself suffers little more than superficial damage.
Her seaworthiness is unaffected, and Kazuhiro’s team remains in standby.
Back at the bridge Admiral Ito remains quiet amidst the chaos.
Orders and status updates fill the air as the Captain attempts to regroup and prepare for more attacks.
Ito doesn’t intervene. He knows the end result is inevitable.
The ship continues sailing towards Okinawa for an hour until the dreaded rumble of engines once again sounds through the clouds.
It all becomes a blur as the battle resumes with the same brutality as before.
Fighters and bombers fall upon the ship, explosions rock the deck
and one by one the anti-air weapons fall silent, no more brave men are present to replace the fallen gunners.
In the lower deck Kazuhiro’s team is ordered further into the ship.
He goes down with 5 more people to the second lowest deck, the ship rumbles and creeks around him,
each explosion sending shockwaves through the hull.
His commanding officer orders two of the group to go further down into the lowest deck to investigate for damage.
Simultaneously, torpedo bombers skim the waves and let go of their deadly payloads.
The captain orders evasive maneuvers, but they are of no use.
Kazuhiro watches as two fellow sailors adventure into the lower decks and close the hatch behind them.
Mere seconds later a massive BANG reverberates through the ship,
the lights go out and water gushes up the hatch, quickly flooding the hallway.
He stumbles in the pitch dark, searching desperately for the way back up
as the water level reaches his chest and his feet leave the floor.
Then, miraculously, something shines weakly above them.
The hatch to the upper floor opens slightly from the air pressure, letting a sliver of light through.
The men swim towards it and push it open; they climb up moments before their pocket of air disappears.
They close the hatch behind them, but they watch horrified as seawater shoots up through the seals.
Desperate to stop further flooding and believing the hatch was going to burst, they search for a way to reinforce it.
The Yamato is mortally wounded, she’s taking in water, listing,
and there are no longer enough surviving crew members to rescue her.
A new alarm joins the symphony of gunshots and explosions: the forward magazine is at a critical temperature.
Captain Aruga orders its flooding to prevent catastrophic detonation, but he’s informed the pumps are inoperable.
He stares out into the distance, exhausted and defeated. It’s all over. He orders “Abandon ship”.
Admiral Ito stands up from his seat. “Cancel the operation. Return to port after rescuing the men,” he orders.
It’s the only thing he’s said since the start of the battle.
A signal man runs out of the bridge to inform the rest of the ships of their new orders.
The Admiral then thanks the crew on the bridge and solemnly leaves for his cabin.
Captain Aruga then dismisses the remaining crew and orders them to abandon ship as well.
Back under the deck Kazuhiro and his crew jam a beam between the hatch and the roof,
a desperate and futile attempt to slow the flooding.
His commanding officer can see its all over and yells at the group. “Everyone up!”
The sailors abandon their work and rush to the upper deck as the ship lists further and further underneath them.
They emerge to a chaotic scene. The guns have stopped firing, men are jumping overboard,
and the wounded are being tended on the ground, all the while the ship lists further and further to port.
His officer orders them to throw everything that floats overboard: logs, mats, hammocks, whatever.
The port railing sinks into the waves and the waterline starts taking over the deck
as starboard rises up further and further.
Standing up becomes a struggle, he almost slips down the smooth deck into the ocean.
It’s then that Kazuhiro and his group decide it’s time to abandon ship.
He jumps off the stern into the murky water below. He tries to swim up, but he can’t.
The propellers still spin, and he is sucked into the whirlpools.
The wrecked and burning battleship slowly turns over as the men jump overboard,
guns fall into the waves below when the forward magazine detonates.
The resulting mushroom cloud is seen from mainland Japan.
Kazuhiro emerges from the sea some distance away.
He’s disoriented. Several black columns of smoke rise all around him,
a film of oil floats over the water and he can see many people floating in the distance.
Close by he spots a group of survivors on a raft and joins them.
Two and a half hours later, a Japanese destroyer approaches the raft and picks the men up from the water.
Only 287 men of the more than 3300 would be rescued, Kazuhiro was one of the lucky few.
He survived the war and went back to his family. He was only 18.
Admiral Ito and Captain Aruga went down with the ship.
Operation Ten-Go was a total catastrophe.
Of Yamato’s escorts 5 of the 9 sank alongside her, and a 6th would be sunk later due to her damage.
It would be the last major naval operation of Japan before the end of the War.
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