, also known as Operation Heaven One (or Ten-ichi-gō 天一号), was the last major
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
naval operation in the
Pacific Theater
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The resulting engagement is also known as the Battle of the East China Sea.
In April 1945, the , the largest
battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
in the world, and nine other Japanese warships, embarked from Japan for a suicide attack on
Allied forces engaged in the
Battle of Okinawa
The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of ...
. The Japanese force was attacked by U.S.
carrier-borne aircraft before it could reach
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
. ''Yamato'' and five other Japanese warships were sunk.
The battle demonstrated U.S.
air supremacy
Aerial supremacy (also air superiority) is the degree to which a side in a conflict holds control of air power over opposing forces. There are levels of control of the air in aerial warfare. Control of the air is the aerial equivalent of comm ...
in the
Asiatic-Pacific Theater
The Asiatic-Pacific Theater was the theater of operations of U.S. forces during World War II in the Pacific War during 1941–1945. From mid-1942 until the end of the war in 1945, two U.S. operational commands were in the Pacific. The Pacific O ...
and the vulnerability of
surface ship
Surface combatants (or surface ships or surface vessels) are a subset of naval warships which are designed for warfare on the surface of the water, with their own weapons and armed forces. They are generally ships built to fight other ships, subma ...
s without
air cover to aerial attack. The battle also exhibited Japan's willingness to make extreme sacrifices in ''
kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...
'' attacks aimed at slowing the
Allied advance on the
Japanese home islands
The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chi ...
.
Background
By early 1945, following the
Solomon Islands campaign
The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, du ...
, the
Battle of the Philippine Sea
The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a major naval battle of World War II that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invas ...
and the
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The Battle of Leyte Gulf ( fil, Labanan sa golpo ng Leyte, lit=Battle of Leyte gulf; ) was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was fou ...
, the once-formidable
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
's
Combined Fleet
The was the main sea-going component of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Until 1933, the Combined Fleet was not a permanent organization, but a temporary force formed for the duration of a conflict or major naval maneuvers from various units norm ...
was reduced to just a handful of operational warships and a few remaining aircraft and aircrew. Most of the remaining Japanese warships in the Combined Fleet were stationed at ports in Japan, with most of the large ships at the port of
Kure
is a port and major shipbuilding city situated on the Seto Inland Sea in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. With a strong industrial and naval heritage, Kure hosts the second-oldest naval dockyard in Japan and remains an important base for the Japan ...
in the
Hiroshima Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Hiroshima Prefecture has a population of 2,811,410 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 8,479 km² (3,274 sq mi). Hiroshima Prefecture borders Okayama ...
on the main Japanese island of
Honshu
, historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...
.
As a final step before the
planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, Allied forces
invaded Okinawa on 1 April 1945. In March, when briefing
Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
Hirohito
Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
on Japan's response to the expected invasion of Okinawa, Japanese military leaders explained that the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
was planning extensive air attacks, including the use of ''
kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...
'' tactics. The emperor then reportedly asked, "But what about the Navy? What are they doing to assist in defending Okinawa? Have we no more ships?" Now feeling pressured by the emperor to also mount some kind of attack, Japanese Navy commanders conceived a ''kamikaze''-type mission for their remaining operational large ships, which included the
battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
.
The resulting plan—drafted under the direction of the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral
Soemu Toyoda
was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.
Biography Early career
Toyoda was born in what is now part Kitsuki city, Ōita Prefecture. He graduated from the 33rd class of the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in 1905, ranked 26 ...
,—called for ''Yamato'' and her escorts to attack the U.S. fleet supporting the U.S. troops landing on the western coast of Okinawa. ''Yamato'' and her escorts were to fight their way to Okinawa and then beach themselves between
Higashi Higashi is the Japanese word for ''east''. In kanji it is represented as 東.
Higashi may also refer to:
Places
*Higashi, Shibuya, a district of Shibuya, Tokyo
*Higashi, Fukushima, a village in Fukushima Prefecture
* Higashi, Okinawa, a village i ...
and
Yomitan
is a List of villages in Japan, village located in Nakagami District, Okinawa, Nakagami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
Geography
Yomitan is located on the western coast of the central part of Okinawa Island. The village is bound to th ...
and fight as
shore batteries
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to facil ...
until they were destroyed. Once the ships were destroyed, their surviving crew members were supposed to abandon ship and fight U.S. forces on land. Very little, if any, air cover could be provided for the ships, which would render them almost helpless to concentrated attacks from U.S. carrier-based aircraft. In preparation for executing the plan, on 29 March the assigned ships left Kure for
Tokuyama, off the port of
Mitajiri on the southern coast of Honshu. Despite obeying orders to prepare for the mission, the commander of the ''Ten-Go'' force, Vice-Admiral
Seiichi Itō
was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and the flag officer of the task force centered around the battleship on her final mission towards the end of World War II.
Biography
Early career
Born in Miike County Takada Town (present da ...
, still refused to actually order his ships to carry it out, believing the plan to be futile and wasteful.
Other officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy also had very negative views about the operation, believing that it was a waste of human life and fuel. Captain Atsushi Ōi, an operations officer at Grand Escort Command, was critical as fuel and resources were diverted from other operations. As he was told that the aim of this operation was "the tradition and the glory of the Navy," he shouted: "this war is of our nation and why should the honor of our 'surface fleet' be more respected? Who cares about their glory? Damn fools!".
Vice Admiral
Ryūnosuke Kusaka
, was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II who served as Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet. Fellow Admiral Jinichi Kusaka was his cousin. Kusaka was also the 4th Headmaster of ''Ittō Shōden Mutō-ryū Kenjutsu'', a ...
flew from Tokyo to Tokuyama on 5 April in a final attempt to convince Itō and the assembled commanders of the Combined Fleet to accept the plan. Upon hearing of the proposed operation—which had been kept secret from most of them—the Combined Fleet commanders and captains unanimously joined Itō in rejecting it for the same reasons that he had expressed. Kusaka then explained that the Navy's attack would help divert U.S. aircraft away from the Army's planned kamikaze attacks on the U.S. fleet at Okinawa. He also explained that Japan's national leadership, including the emperor, were expecting the Navy to make their best effort to support the defense of Okinawa.
Upon hearing this, the Combined Fleet commanders relented and accepted the proposed plan. The ships' crews were briefed on the nature of the mission and given the opportunity to stay behind if desired; none did. However, approximately 80 crew members who were new, sick, or infirm, were ordered off the ships, including sixty-seven naval cadets of Etajima Naval Academy Class No. 74 who had arrived on the battleship three days earlier. The ships' crews now engaged in some last-minute intense drills to prepare for the mission, mostly practicing damage control procedures. At midnight, the ships were fueled. Reportedly, in secret defiance of orders to provide the ships with only just enough fuel to reach Okinawa, the Tokuyama personnel actually gave ''Yamato'' and the other ships almost all of the remaining fuel in the port, although this probably still was not enough to allow the force to return to Japan from Okinawa. ''Yamato''s executive officer organised a party for the crew for the evening of 5 April, during which many of the officers and sailors drank heavily.
The United States Navy was able to monitor preparations for Operation Ten-Go by decoding Japanese radio signals. Through this source, the Americans received conclusive intelligence on 5 and 6 April that the attack was to be attempted. The commander of the
United States Fifth Fleet
The Fifth Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy. It has been responsible for naval forces in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and parts of the Indian Ocean since 1995 after a 48-year hiatus. It shares a commander and headq ...
, Admiral
Raymond Spruance
Raymond Ames Spruance (July 3, 1886 – December 13, 1969) was a United States Navy admiral during World War II. He commanded U.S. naval forces during one of the most significant naval battles that took place in the Pacific Theatre: the Battle ...
, ordered his forces to prepare to attack the Japanese at 12:30 am on 6 April, before ''Yamato'' and her consorts sailed.
Prelude
![Ten-goMap1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Ten-goMap1.png)
At 16:00 on 6 April, ''Yamato'' (with Admiral Itō on board), the
light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
, and eight
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
s ''(
Asashimo,
Hamakaze
The is a limited express train service in Japan operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West), which runs from to and .
Stops
Trains stop at the following stations:
- - - - ( Nishi-Akashi) - () - - - - - - - - - - - () - ...
,
Isokaze,
Suzutsuki,
Hatsushimo,
Yukikaze,
Fuyutsuki,'' and
''Kasumi'') departed Tokuyama to begin the mission. Two American
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
s, and , sighted the Japanese force as it proceeded south through the
Bungo Channel
The is a strait separating the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku. It connects the Pacific Ocean and the Seto Inland Sea on the western end of Shikoku. The narrowest part of this channel is the Hōyo Strait.
In the English-speaking world, t ...
. Although they were unable to attack due to the ships' speed, they did spend several hours
shadowing the Japanese
sortie
A sortie (from the French word meaning ''exit'' or from Latin root ''surgere'' meaning to "rise up") is a deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops, from a strongpoint. The term originated in siege warfare. ...
and sending updates on its course to the U.S. fleet. The submarines' messages, which were reportedly sent uncoded, were also picked up by radio operators on the Japanese ships.
At dawn on 7 April, the Japanese force passed the
Ōsumi Peninsula
261x261px, Satellite image of Ōsumi Peninsula
The projects south from the Japanese island of Kyūshū and includes the southernmost point on the island, Cape Sata. Its east coast lies on the Pacific Ocean, while to the west it faces the Satsuma ...
into the open ocean heading south from
Kyūshū
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...
toward Okinawa. They shifted into a defensive
formation
Formation may refer to:
Linguistics
* Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes
* Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes
Mathematics and science
* Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...
, with ''Yahagi'' leading ''Yamato'' and the eight destroyers deployed in a ring around the two larger ships, with each ship from each other and proceeding at . One of the Japanese destroyers, ''Asashimo'', developed engine trouble and turned back. U.S.
reconnaissance aircraft
A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using photography), signals intelligence, as ...
began to shadow the main force of ships. At 10:00, the Japanese force turned west to make it look like they were
withdrawing, but at 11:30, after being detected by two American
PBM Mariner
The Martin PBM Mariner was an American patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War era. It was designed to complement the Consolidated PBY Catalina and PB2Y Coronado in service. A total of 1,366 PBMs were built, with the fi ...
flying boat
A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...
s, the ''Yamato'' fired a salvo with her bow guns using special , but could not prevent the two planes from shadowing the Japanese force. Then they turned back towards Okinawa.
Upon receiving contact reports early on 7 April, Spruance ordered Task Force 54, which consisted mostly of modernized
Standard-type battleships under the command of Rear Admiral
Morton Deyo
Vice Admiral Morton Lyndholm Deyo (1 July 1887 – 10 November 1973) was an officer in the United States Navy, who was a naval gunfire support task force commander of World War II.
Born on 1 July 1887 in Poughkeepsie, New York, he graduated from ...
(which were engaged in shore bombardment), to intercept and destroy the Japanese sortie. Deyo moved to execute his orders, but Vice Admiral
Marc A. Mitscher
Marc Andrew "Pete" Mitscher (January 26, 1887 – February 3, 1947) was a pioneer in naval aviation who became an Admiral (United States), admiral in the United States Navy, and served as commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force in the Pacific d ...
, who commanded
Task Force 58
The Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 38 when assigned to Third Fleet, TF 58 when assigned to Fifth Fleet), was the main striking force of the United States Navy in the Pacific War from January 1944 through the end of the war in August 1945. The task ...
, preempted Spruance and Deyo by launching a massive air strike from his carriers, without informing Spruance until after the launches were completed. As a senior naval aviation officer, "Mitscher had spent a career fighting the battleship admirals who had steered the navy’s thinking for most of the current century. One of those was his immediate superior, Raymond Spruance. Mitscher felt a stirring of battleship versus aircraft carrier rivalry. Though the carriers had mostly fought the great battles of the Pacific, whether air power alone could prevail over a surface force had not been proven beyond all doubt. Here was an opportunity to end the debate forever".
Around 10:00 on 7 April, Task Groups 58.1 and 58.3 began launching 280 aircraft from their carriers to attack the Japanese force. Task Group 58.4 launched a further 106 aircraft. The aircraft consisted of
F6F Hellcat
The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed to replace the earlier Grumman F4F Wildcat, F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was the United St ...
and
F4U Corsair
The Vought F4U Corsair is an American fighter aircraft which saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Designed and initially manufactured by Chance Vought, the Corsair was soon in great demand; additional production contract ...
fighters,
SB2C Helldiver
The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver is a dive bomber developed by Curtiss-Wright during World War II. As a carrier-based bomber with the United States Navy (USN), in Pacific theaters, it supplemented and replaced the Douglas SBD Dauntless. A few surv ...
dive bomber
A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...
s, and
TBF Avenger
The Grumman TBF Avenger (designated TBM for aircraft manufactured by General Motors) is an American World War II-era torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air and nav ...
torpedo bomber
A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...
s. Overall, 15 carriers launched aircraft. The air groups launched from five carriers became lost in bad weather and were not able to attack. As a contingency, Spruance ordered Admiral Deyo to assemble a force of six fast battleships, seven cruisers and 21 destroyers to prepare for a surface engagement with ''Yamato'' should the airstrikes prove unsuccessful.
Battle
![Yamato2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Curtiss_SB2C_Helldiver_prepares_to_attack_the_Japanese_battleship_Yamato_on_7_April_1945.jpg)
Around noon, the first American aircraft arrived over ''Yamato''; these were F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair fighters, under orders to deal with any Japanese aircraft that might appear to defend the below-mentioned ships, but none appeared. Once it became obvious that the Japanese force had no air cover, the U.S. aircraft could set up for their attacks without fear of opposition from Japanese aircraft. U.S. bomber and torpedo aircraft arriving over the ''Yamato'' group—after their two-hour flight from Okinawa— could circle the Japanese ship formation just out of
anti-aircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
range to set up their attacks on the warships below methodically. The first wave of U.S. carrier planes was spotted by a Japanese lookout on the bridge at 12:32. Two minutes later, at 12:34, ''Yamato'' opened fire with her 460 mm main batteries. The Japanese ships stopped zigzagging and increased speed to , began taking evasive maneuvers, and opened fire with their anti-aircraft guns. ''Yamato'' carried almost 150 anti-aircraft guns, including her massive 460 mm main guns that fired
San Shiki anti-aircraft shells. The U.S. pilots deduced that the use of San Shiki and colored gunfire meant that ''Yamato's'' gunners relied on visual aiming and range, rather than being radar directed, and as a result "were missing with great consistency" despite the storm of fire that they put up.
The American F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair fighters "were supposed to go first, to strafe, to rocket, to drop light ordnance, distracting the enemy gunners while the SB2C Helldivers plunged almost straight down with their heavy
rmor piercingbombs". This was because the TBM Avenger torpedo bombers "needed all the distraction and diversion they could get when they made their dangerous low altitude runs straight at the enemy ships."
The Avengers mainly attacked from the
port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
side so that if the torpedoes hit that side, it would increase the likelihood of the target ship capsizing.
At 12:46, a torpedo hit ''Yahagi'' directly in her engine room, killing the entire engineering room crew and bringing her to a complete stop. ''Yahagi'' was hit by at least six more torpedoes and 12 bombs by succeeding waves of air attacks. The Japanese destroyer ''Isokaze'' attempted to come to ''Yahagi''s aid but was attacked and heavily damaged and sank sometime later. ''Yahagi'' capsized and sank at 14:05.
During the first attack wave, despite evasive maneuvers that caused most of the bombs and torpedoes aimed at her to miss, ''Yamato'' was hit by two
armor-piercing
Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour.
From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many warsh ...
bombs and one torpedo. Her speed was not affected, but one of the bombs started a fire aft of the
superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships.
Aboard ships and large boats
On water craft, the superstruct ...
that was not extinguished. Also, during the first attack wave, Japanese destroyers ''Hamakaze'' and ''Suzutsuki'' were heavily damaged and taken out of the battle. ''Hamakaze'' sank later.
Between 13:20 and 14:15, the second and third waves of U.S. aircraft attacked, concentrating on ''Yamato''. During this time, ''Yamato'' was hit by at least eight torpedoes and up to 15 bombs. The bombs did extensive damage to the topside of the ship, including knocking out power to the
gun director
A director, also called an auxiliary predictor, is a mechanical or electronic computer that continuously calculates trigonometric firing solutions for use against a moving target, and transmits targeting data to direct the weapon firing crew.
Na ...
s and forcing the anti-aircraft guns to be individually and manually aimed and fired, greatly reducing their effectiveness. The torpedo hits—almost all on the port side—caused ''Yamato'' to list enough that capsizing was now an imminent danger.
At 13:33, in a desperate attempt to keep the ship from capsizing, ''Yamato''s damage control team counter-flooded both
starboard
Port and starboard are nautical terms for watercraft and aircraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the bow (front).
Vessels with bilateral symmetry have left and right halves which are ...
engine and boiler rooms. This mitigated the danger but also drowned the several hundred crew members crewing those stations, who were given no notice that their compartments were about to fill with water. The loss of the starboard engines, plus the weight of the water, caused ''Yamato'' to slow to about . At that same moment, the Americans launched another 110 aircraft from Task Group 58. Twenty Avengers made a new torpedo run from 60 degrees to port. Yamato started a sharp turn to port, but three torpedoes ripped into her port side amidships, jamming her auxiliary
rudder
A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...
in position hard port.
With ''Yamato'' proceeding more slowly and therefore being more accessible to target, U.S. torpedo aircraft concentrated on hitting her rudder and stern with torpedoes to affect her steering ability, which they succeeded in doing. At 14:02, after being informed that the ship could no longer steer and was sinking, Admiral Itō ordered the mission canceled, the crew to abandon the ship and the remaining ships to begin rescuing survivors.
''Yamato'' communicated this message to the other surviving ships by
signal flag
Flag signals can mean any of various methods of using flags or pennants to send signals. Flags may have individual significance as signals, or two or more flags may be manipulated so that their relative positions convey symbols. Flag signals allo ...
because her radios had been destroyed.
![Japanese battleship Yamato explodes on 7 April 1945 (NH 62579)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Japanese_battleship_Yamato_explodes_on_7_April_1945_%28NH_62579%29.jpg)
Admiral Itō, along with Captain
Kōsaku Aruga, who commands ''Yamato'' for the battle,
refused to abandon ship, with Itō retiring to the flag cabin while Aruga tied himself to the
binnacle
A binnacle is a waist-high case or stand on the deck of a ship, generally mounted in front of the helmsman, in which navigational instruments are placed for easy and quick reference as well as to protect the delicate instruments. Its traditional p ...
. As the order to abandon the ship was issued after the ship began to capsize, many of her crew were trapped. American aircraft continued to attack ''Yamato'' during this period, and she suffered several more torpedo hits.
At 14:20, ''Yamato'' capsized completely and began to sink (). At 14:23, she suddenly blew up with an
explosion
An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...
so large that it was reportedly heard and seen away in
Kagoshima
, abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...
and sent up a
mushroom-shaped cloud almost into the air. Japanese survivor
Mitsuru Yoshida
Mitsuru Yoshida (吉田 満 ''Yoshida Mitsuru'' January 6, 1923 – September 17, 1979) was a Japanese author and naval officer. He was born in Tokyo. He was a survivor of the battleship ''Yamato'' when it was sunk on 7 April 1945 during Operat ...
said that her large explosion downed several U.S. planes observing her end. The explosion is believed to have occurred when the fires ignited by bomb hits reached the main
magazines
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...
.
Attempting to make it back to port, Japanese destroyer was bombed and sunk with no survivors by U.S. aircraft. The Japanese destroyer was also crippled by a U.S. carrier aircraft attack during the battle and had to be scuttled
by other, relatively undamaged Japanese destroyers. ''Suzutsuki'' was able to make it to
Sasebo
is a core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is also the second largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. On 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 247,739 and a population density of 581 persons p ...
, Japan, despite her
bow being blown off by steaming in reverse the entire way.
The remaining three less-damaged Japanese destroyers (''Fuyutsuki'', ''Yukikaze'', and ''Hatsushimo'') were able to rescue 280 survivors from ''Yamato'' (sources differ on the size of ''Yamato''s crew, giving it as between 2,750 and 3,300 men), plus 555 survivors from ''Yahagi'' (out of a crew of 1,000) and just over 800 survivors from ''Isokaze'', ''Hamakaze'', and ''Kasumi''. Between 3,700 and 4,250 Japanese naval personnel perished in the battle.
The ships took the survivors to Sasebo.
A total of 10 U.S. aircraft were shot down by anti-aircraft fire from the Japanese ships; some aircrews were rescued by
seaplane
A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...
or submarine. In total, the U.S. lost 12 men. Some of the Japanese survivors reported that U.S. fighter aircraft
strafed
Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons.
Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such ...
Japanese survivors floating in the water. Japanese survivors also reported that U.S. aircraft temporarily halted their attacks on the Japanese destroyers during the time that the destroyers were busy picking up survivors from the water.
Aerial kamikaze attacks
During the battle, as promised, the Japanese Army conducted an air attack on the U.S. naval fleet at Okinawa, but they failed to sink any ships. Around 115 aircraft—many of them ''
kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...
''—attacked the U.S. ships throughout April 7. ''Kamikaze'' aircraft hit the aircraft carrier , battleship , and destroyer , causing moderate damage to ''Hancock'' and ''Maryland'' and severe damage to ''Bennett''. About 100 Japanese aircraft were lost in the attack.
Aftermath
''Ten-Go'' was the last major Japanese naval operation of the war, and the remaining Japanese warships had little involvement in combat operations for the rest of the conflict. ''Suzutsuki'' was never repaired. ''Fuyutsuki'' was repaired but hit a U.S. air-dropped mine at
Moji, Japan, on 20 August 1945, and was not subsequently repaired. ''Yukikaze'' survived the war almost undamaged. ''Hatsushimo'' hit a U.S. air-dropped mine on 30 July 1945, near
Maizuru
is a city in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 78,644 in 34817 households and a population density of 230 persons per km². The total area of the city is .
Geography
Maizuru is located in northern Kyoto Pref ...
, Japan, and was the 129th, and last, Japanese destroyer sunk in the war.
''Maryland'' was kept out of the war following the ''kamikaze'' attacks. Okinawa was declared secure by Allied forces on 21 June 1945, after an intense and costly battle.
Japan surrendered 15 August 1945, after being
bombed twice with atomic weapons. The apparent willingness of Japan to sacrifice so many of its people using suicidal tactics such as Operation Ten-Go and in the Battle of Okinawa was reportedly a factor in the American decision to employ atomic weapons against Japan.
''Yamato'' remains fairly prominent in modern
Japanese culture
The culture of Japan has changed greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period, to its contemporary modern culture, which absorbs influences from Asia and other regions of the world.
Historical overview
The ance ...
, where she is often portrayed as a symbol of
Japanese nationalism
is a form of nationalism that asserts the belief that the Japanese are a monolithic nation with a single immutable culture, and promotes the cultural unity of the Japanese. Over the last two centuries, it has encompassed a broad range of ideas a ...
. The academic Robert Farley has written that popular depictions of the battleship portray her destruction as a "heroic, but also pointless and futile, sacrifice". One of the reasons the event may have such significance in Japanese culture is that the word ''Yamato'' was often used as a poetic name for Japan. Thus, the end of the battleship ''Yamato'' could serve as a metaphor for the end of the Japanese empire.
Jiji Press
is a news agency in Japan.
History
Jiji was formed in November 1945 following the breakup of Domei Tsushin, the government-controlled news service responsible for disseminating information prior to and during World War II. Jiji inherited Dom ...
,
Yamato survivor, 87, recalls doomed mission
, ''Japan Times
''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
History
''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...
'', 20 August 2015
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
* The official site of the NOVA documentary with additional information on the subject.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ten-Go, Operation
1945 in Japan
April 1945 events in Asia
Conflicts in 1945
Naval aviation operations and battles
Naval battles of World War II involving Japan
Naval battles of World War II involving the United States
Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II