3,055 men went down with the largest battleship ever built. Eighty years later, every single one of them is still at the bottom of the East China Sea — and nobody has ever gone to bring them home.
The Japanese battleship Yamato was the heaviest and most powerfully armed warship ever constructed. On April 7, 1945, it was sunk during Operation Ten-Go, a suicide mission to Okinawa. It was hit by at least 11 torpedoes and 6 bombs in ninety minutes. Only 277 of the 3,332 crew survived.
In this video, I investigate:
— What happened to the 3,055 men who went down with the ship
— What expeditions found when cameras reached the wreckage
— Why Japan designated the site a war grave
— Why nobody will ever be allowed to recover the remains
The Yamato wreck sits at roughly 1,100 feet below the surface. It was located in 1985, surveyed in 1999 and again in 2016. The chrysanthemum crest is still visible on the bow. The main turrets lie scattered on the ocean floor. Personal belongings — shoes, mess kits, uniform fragments — are still there.
This is not just a shipwreck documentary. This is the story of the men sealed below.
📌 Sources:
— Garzke & Dulin, "Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in WWII"
— Yoshida Mitsuru, "Requiem for Battleship Yamato"
— 2016 Kure Maritime Museum digital survey footage
— U.S. Navy action reports, Battle of the East China Sea
🔔 New videos every Tuesday and Friday.
If your family has a connection to the Yamato or any warship, I'd like to hear about it in the comments.
#yamato #battleship #shipwreck #wwii #navalhistory #sealedbelow
Runtime 00:10:31
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