Yamato’s Final Voyage

I admit it, I’m a huge fan when it comes to Star Blazers also known as Space Cruiser Yamato for your hardcore anime fanboys. Tonight I was very surprised while channel surfing to see that Nova on PBS did an amazing special on the final voyage of World War II battleship Yamato. The special showed some footage of the ruins of the Yamato underwater, along with some nice computer animation and some very touching interviews with actual survivors. The website for the show is well worth checking out:

Sinking of the Supership
The tragic WWII story of the Yamato

“The final phase of the Pacific war during World War II saw a terrible new tactic: massed kamikaze attacks on American ships by Japanese planes. But the biggest kamikaze attack of all was the suicidal mission of the super battleship Yamato, the largest, most advanced warship of the day. In this program, NOVA joins an international team exploring the grave of this magnificent vessel to learn the secrets of her design, her final mission, and the violent events that brought her down.

Yamato lies on the floor of the East China Sea, 200 miles north of Okinawa, blown apart by one of the most massive explosions ever to occur at sea. Altogether, more than 2,700 men went down with the ship or drowned after it sank, making the loss of the Yamato one of the greatest naval disasters of all time. Despite the destruction, the majesty of the ship is unmistakable, symbolized by a six-foot-wide chrysanthemum crest, icon of the Japanese imperial family, still gracing Yamato’s prow like a figurehead.”