This is an excellent artical especially being able to interview her crewmembers which I'm pleasently surprised they were able to locate. However I will never understand the "spin" put on some historical events by some people only 60 years after the event. Calling the sinking of the world's biggest and most powerful battleship a "tragic event" is very disturbing considering the circumstances surrounding why she was sunk. Slaying a fierce and terrible monster bent on waging death and distruction is heroic not tragic. To my Uncle and thousands of others that were aboard transports that were in harms way that day, the sinking of Yamato was a very heroic event.
I wonder what reaction we would get from the allies who survived that day if we said the sinking of Yamato was tragic.
Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the Lusitania , the invasion of Poland and 9/11 et al were "tragic events" resulting from malice and military aggression against innocents during peacetime. The sinking of Yamato was a great victory for the Allies saving thousands of lives aboard the transports etc and bringing that terrible war closer to it's end by destroying a huge part and "symbol" of the Imperial Japanese Military machine rendering it's fleet less capable of aggressive acts.. and ending a terrible war for all that were involved. Maybe the only tragic part of her demise was sending her and her 3000+ crewmen into a hornets nest in the first place knowing full well the War by then was lost. Refering to her loss as being tragic is almost like defending her existance & mission in the first place.
Please don't misunderstand I mean no political opinion or ill will. I have modeled the Yamato and She is one of my favorite ship designs. But as a student of history as well as being a ship modeller I do believe the telling of the Yamato story should be historically accurate and honest just like all History should be taught from all sources. As in life Monday Morning Quaterbacking changes nothing no matter how much we wish it would.
Thanks for the site I really enjoyed it.