A glorious way to die: The kamikaze mission of the battleship Yamato, April 1945

The Yamato was the biggest battleship ever built. First of a class of superships built secretly before World War II, she was the proudest technological achievement of a nation newly emerged as a naval power. Yet before she was commissioned, in December 1941, the Japanese themselves rendered the battleship obsolete by their carrier strike against Pearl Harbor. Throughout most of the Pacific war the pride of the Imperial Japanese navy was relegated to minor roles - until the American invasion of Okinawa. It was then, with the navy whittled away, that a desperate Japanese High Command decided to throw Yamato into the battle. The mighty ship was ordered to attack the invading force - the greatest assemblage of warships the world had ever seen - backed only by eight escorts. No planes or pilots could be spared to provide air cover. Combat directives made it clear that this was a one-way Kamikaze mission. The Japanese were intercepted on April 7, 1945, some 200 miles from Okinawa. American carriers threw more aircraft at the intruders than the Japanese used against Pearl Harbor. Within two hours, Yamato and most of her escorts were sunk or crippled. At final count 260 officers and men were saved from Yamato. The dead totaled 3,063. Russell Spurr sets the story of the Yamato against the background of Japanese suicide war tactics. He has recorded eyewitness accounts from the men involved, Japanese and Americans, from top admirals to fighter pilots to junior ships' gunners. He portrays the reaction of the sailors as they receive and carry out the orders to attack - and to die. He probes the politics and mentality of the Japanese leadership and the morale and spirit of the fighting men and the nation. What emerges is more than a story of a sortie or a ship. To quote the author: "The result...offers some insights into the agonizing dilemma of a misguided, courageous people who persisted in continuing a hopeless war."