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was the lead ship of the ''Yamato'' class of Imperial Japanese Navy World War II battleships. She and her sister ship, , were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) 45 Caliber Type 94 main guns. Neither ship survived the war. Named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, ''Yamato'' was designed to counter the numerically superior battleship fleet of the United States, Japan's main rival in the Pacific. She was laid down in 1937 and formally commissioned a week after the Pearl Harbor attack in late 1941. Throughout 1942, she served as the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and in June 1942 Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto directed the fleet from her bridge during the Battle of Midway, a disastrous defeat for Japan. ''Musashi'' took over as the Combined Fleet flagship in early 1943, and ''Yamato'' spent the rest of the year, and much of 1944, moving between the major Japanese naval bases of Truk and Kure in response to American threats. Although present at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, she played no part in the battle. The only time ''Yamato'' fired her main guns at enemy surface targets was in October 1944, when she was sent to engage American forces invading the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. On the verge of success, the Japanese force turned back, believing they were engaging an entire US carrier fleet rather than the light escort carrier group that was all that stood between the battleship and the vulnerable troop transports. During 1944, the balance of naval power in the Pacific decisively turned against Japan, and by early 1945, its fleet was much depleted and badly hobbled by critical fuel shortages in the home islands. In a desperate attempt to slow the Allied advance, ''Yamato'' was dispatched on a one-way mission to Okinawa in April 1945, with orders to beach herself and fight until destroyed protecting the island. The task force was spotted south of Kyushu by US submarines and aircraft, and on 7 April 1945 she was sunk by American carrier-based bombers and torpedo bombers with the loss of most of her crew. ==Design and construction== (詳細はultranationalist militancy with a view to greatly expand the Japanese Empire.〔Willmott (2000), p. 32.〕 Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in 1934, renouncing its treaty obligations.〔Garzke and Dulin (1985), p. 44.〕 After withdrawing from the Washington Naval Treaty, which limited the size and power of capital ships, the Imperial Japanese Navy began their design of the new ''Yamato'' class of heavy battleships. Their planners recognized Japan would be unable to compete with the output of U.S. naval shipyards should war break out, so the 70,000 ton〔Jackson (2000), p. 74; Jentshura, Jung and Mickel (1977), p. 38.〕 vessels of the ''Yamato'' class were designed to be capable of engaging multiple enemy battleships at the same time.〔Johnston and McAuley (2000), p. 122.〕〔Willmott (2000), p. 35. The Japanese Empire produced 3.5% of the world's industrial output, while the United States produced 35%.〕 The keel of ''Yamato'', the lead ship of the class,〔Skulski (2004), pp. 8–11.〕 was laid down at the Kure Naval Arsenal, Hiroshima, on 4 November 1937, in a dockyard that had to be adapted to accommodate her enormous hull.〔〔Garzke and Dulin (1985), pp. 52–54.〕 The dock was deepened by one meter, and gantry cranes capable of lifting up to 350 tonnes were installed.〔Johnston and McAuley (2000), p. 123.〕〔Garzke and Dulin (1985), p. 53.〕 Extreme secrecy was maintained throughout construction,〔〔Hough, p. 205〕 a canopy even being erected over part of the slipway to screen the ship from view.〔Garzke and Dulin (1985), pp. 50–51.〕 ''Yamato'' was launched on 8 August 1940, with Captain (later Vice-Admiral) Miyazato Shutoku in command.〔Garzke and Dulin (1985), p. 54.〕 A great effort was made in Japan to ensure that the ships were built in extreme secrecy to prevent American intelligence officials from learning of their existence and specifications.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Japanese battleship Yamato」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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