Yamato (???); named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province; was the lead ship of the Yamato class of battleships that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She and her sister ship; Musashi; 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) main guns. Neither ship survived the war.

Laid down in 1937 and formally commissioned a week after the Pearl Harbor attack in late 1941; Yamato was designed to counter the numerically superior battleship fleet of the United States; Japan's main rival in the Pacific. 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.

During 1944; the balance of naval power in the Pacific decisively turned against Japan and; by early 1945; the Japanese fleet was much depleted and critically short of fuel stocks in the home islands; limiting its usefulness. In April 1945; in a desperate attempt to slow the Allied advance; Yamato was dispatched on a one way voyage to Okinawa; where it was intended that she should protect the island from invasion and fight until destroyed. 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. Pictures From History