was the lead ship of her class of battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) shortly before World War II. She and her sister ship, , were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing nearly at full load and armed with nine Type 94 main guns, which were the largest guns ever mounted on a warship.
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 attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Throughout 1942, she served as the flagship of the 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 moving between the major Japanese naval bases of Truk and Kure in response to American threats. In December 1943, Yamato was torpedoed by an American submarine which necessitated repairs at Kure, where she was refitted with additional anti-aircraft guns and radar in early 1944. 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. While threatening to sink American troop transports, they encountered a light escort carrier group of the US Navy's Task Force 77, "Taffy 3", in the Battle off Samar, sinking or helping to sink the escort carrier and the destroyers and . The Japanese turned back after American air attacks convinced them they were engaging a powerful US carrier fleet.
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, thus 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
During the 1930s the Japanese government adopted an ultranationalist militancy with a view to greatly expand the Empire of Japan. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in 1934, renouncing its treaty obligations. 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 of heavy battleships. Their planners recognized Japan would be unable to compete with the output of US naval shipyards should war break out, so the 70,000-ton vessels of the Yamato class were designed to be capable of engaging multiple enemy battleships at the same time.
The keel of Yamato, the lead ship of the class, 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. The dock was deepened by one metre, and gantry cranes capable of lifting up to 350 tonnes were installed. Extreme secrecy was maintained throughout construction, a canopy even being erected over part of the dry dock to screen the ship from view. Yamato was launched on 8 August 1940, with Captain (later Vice Admiral) Miyazato Shutoku in command.
Armament
right|thumb|alt=A view over a dock containing a large warship in the final stages of construction. Hills and a town can be seen across the harbor, a number of other ships are visible in the middle distance, and filling the foreground the warship's deck is littered with cables and equipment.|Yamato near the end of her [[fitting out, 20 September 1941]]
Yamatos main battery consisted of nine 45-caliber Type 94 guns—the largest ever fitted to a warship, although the shells were not as heavy as those fired by the British 18-inch naval guns of . Each gun was long, weighed , and was capable of firing high-explosive or armor-piercing shells . Her secondary battery comprised twelve 15.5 cm/60 3rd Year Type naval gun| guns mounted in four triple turrets (one forward, one aft, two amidships), and twelve 12.7 cm/40 Type 89 naval gun| guns in six twin mounts (three on each side amidships). These turrets had been taken off the s when those vessels were converted to a main armament of 20 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval gun| guns. In addition, Yamato carried twenty-four Type 96 25 mm AT/AA Gun| anti-aircraft guns, primarily mounted amidships. the secondary battery configuration was changed to six 155 mm guns and twenty-four 127 mm guns, and the number of 25 mm anti-aircraft guns was increased to 162.
Service
Trials and initial operations
thumb|right|Yamato during sea trials, October 1941
thumb|Admiral [[Isoroku Yamamoto (fourth from left) and his staff posing with the Yamato's 46 cm (18.1 in) gun turret 3 on 20 December 1941.]]
During October or November 1941 Yamato underwent sea trials, reaching her maximum possible speed of .|group=N As war loomed, priority was given to accelerating military construction. On 16 December, months ahead of schedule, the battleship was formally commissioned at Kure, in a ceremony more austere than usual, as the Japanese were still intent on concealing the ship's characteristics.
On 12 February 1942, Yamato became the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's Combined Fleet. US codebreakers were aware of Yamamoto's intentions, and the Battle of Midway proved disastrous for Japan's carrier force, with four fleet carriers and 332 aircraft lost.