WUNDERKAMMER

自分用にアップ。「戦艦大和が残したもの」というレポートで英語でづらづら書いています。パソコンをマックに乗り換える際、wordが最初は入っていないだろうし、このレポートだけは無くしたくないので念のためオンラインでも残しておくことにしました。

気が向いたらどうぞ。

As the sixty years after the World War ll, there are some movies which treat about the war and the Japan Self-Defense Force (SDF), and these movies are written by Harutoshi Fukui who is the best seller writer. There are many people who think about the military or the self defense as there are many security problem existing like North Korea or the terrorism. In addition to the 60th anniversary of WWll, this year is the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Tsushima in which the Admiral Togo won against the Russian Navy, so that the Japan Marine Self-Defense Force had the big ceremony in many cities. Furthermore, Yamato Museum opened in this April in Kure where battleship Yamato was born. Then, because of the fear of North Korea or terrorism, the confidence toward the SDF has increased from 2000 to 2004 (Central Research Service Inc.). Though the research of this year is not yet announced, it is easily to say that still people think the SDF reliable as there were many movies or situations in TV which the SDF personnel helped people at disasters in Japan or other countries and preparing for the urgent security trouble. In this way, there are many movies or other chances for people to know the Japanese Imperial Navy and the SDF. Then, as the summary of this year, a movie titled “Otokotachi no Yamato (English name is “Yamato”.)” is going to be released in this winter. This movie is about the last battleship of Japan, Yamato, famous ship because of its name and its history. In this research, how Yamato was built, how Yamato sank, and what Yamato left to posterity will be taken up.

First, the history of Yamato was sorrowful as a battleship. She was born in secret, because her birth was the same time with the Japanese announcement that Washington Treaty was unless (Ito 15 English version). The explanation of Yamato’s history by the Naval Historical Center (NHC) is really clear and simple;

Commissioned in December 1941, just over a week after the start of the Pacific war, Yamato served as　flagship of Combined Fleet commander Isoroku Yamamoto during the critical battles of 1442. During the following year, she spent most time at Truk, as part of a mobile naval force defending Japan’s Central Pacific bases. Torpedoed by USS Skate (SS-305) in December 1943, Yamato was under repair until April 1944, during which time her anti-aircraft battery was considerably increased. She then took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October. During the latter action, she was attacked several times by U.S. Navy aircraft, and fired her　big guns in an engagement with U.S. escort carriers and destroyers off the island of Samar.

After the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Yamato came back to home town and equipped more anti-aircraft machine guns (NHC). Unfortunately, these new machine could not help Yamato from attack of aircrafts. Yamato sank on April 7 in 1945 on the way to Okinawa without proving her true ability and still sleeping under the sea with more than 3000 crews. There was no Japanese aircraft which defended Yamato, because the aircrafts were needed to defend the mainland (Ito 212 Japanese Version).

In second, Yamato has the extreme technology at that time and this technology has used after the war. After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government had aimed to get the European technology. Many ships, even Mikasa, was imported from England and the last imported battleship Kongo was built in 1913 while many Japanese engineers went to England and studied the latest naval engineering (Nakahara, Sagawa 64-65). In 1920, the Navy built Nagato and Mutu which had the 16 inches main armaments and that surprised many foreign Navies (65). Famous military commentator Masanori Ito showed how Yamato was built:

At Today’s unit cost of two million yen per ton, it would take 150 billion yen to build battleship Yamato. Since this amount is the entire annual budget for Japan’s national defense, it is obvious that she will not be building such a ship. Great technological skill was needed to build ships big enough to mount nine 18.1-inch guns. It was an unprecedented undertaking (20 E).

Ito also pointed that the foreign navies had paid more interest in the shipbuilding of the Japanese Navy than the Japanese people at that time (25 J). As already mentioned Yamato was built in secret, and this is because of her great technology. In 2000, the blueprint of Yamato was found and it showed her impregnable defenses and attack power (NHK). In TV program which was made by NHK (Japan Broadcast Corporation), the pouring and drainage system of Yamato was explained that there were 1,147 rooms which were to keep the balance between right and left by pouring or flushing the water. This system keeps the balance of the ship so that she could keep the speed, and she did not sink easily. In addition, Yamato had called as “Yamato Hotel” because there was air conditioner and elevators in her. Then, she had 46cm main armament which range was 3 km longer than the American 40.6cm guns and the 410 mm steel which covered her body which could endure 46cm main armament (NHK). Even though Yamato had such a great system and guns, she sunk finally. What she left, however, played a part in the postwar economy. In the postwar, the planed shipbuilding was like the Navy way, and many engineers had supported in the field of technology (Hatano 167). It is also said that her air conditioner’s technology was used in consumer electronics (Kishida). In short, the postwar economical growth in the shipbuilding was from originally the Japanese Navy’s technology and system planning (Hatano 169).

Thirdly, Yamato’s sinking was the symbol of tactic change from battleship to aircraft carrier, because she was sunk by the aircraft even though she had the strongest combat efficiency. As Nakahara and Sagawa pointed, the effectiveness of aircraft was proved by the Japanese Navy (154). At the Paul Harbor and the Maraya offing, Japanese aircraft proved its supremacy over the battleship (Ito 50J). After these battles, the U.S. Navy changed its strategy from the battleship to aircraft, and started to build aircraft carrier with the surprising speed; once a week, there was a launch (NHK). In this way, the tactic of battle had changed to aircraft by the time Yamato went to Okinawa.

As already mentioned, the change of tactic was brought by the Japanese Navy, but why had they stuck to the battleship? The answer could be found in its history. When the first combined fleet had formed, Japan was fighting against Russia. The Battle of Tsushima in which the Admiral Togo won against the Russian Navy was the first battle between battleships, and the victory of Japanese Navy gave people the impression that battleship is the main actor of the modern battle (NHK). Nakahara and Hara introduced about the large warship and big gun principle in this way; “The Battle of Tsushima proved that the battle’s victory and defeat was decided only by the main armaments and the small sub-armaments were useless. Then, by the appearance of Dread Note, the large warship and big gun principle became the main theory (64).” This stream could see that the disarmament agreement during two world wars mainly treated the battleships. In addition, Ito pointed interesting things that “All over the ship equals the battle” fit the spirit of the Japanese Navy (27J). The Japanese Navy could not change the tactic, because of its history.

By the way, this is the famous story that Yamato went to Okinawa as Tokko because the combined fleet instructor had ordered to Yamato to herald the future of 100 million suicide attacks. Here is the question that why Yamato went to Okinawa, rather than stay near from the mainland of Japan. As Fujiwara said, the rule layer and the military had thought Okinawa was not important because they did not think that Okinawa is the part of Japan and they did not have the idea to save the country and the Japanese (13). The change of the Okinawa’s part came from the Japanese continuing lost, and then the union fleet command explained that the loss of Okinawa would lead the Japanese defeat and Yamato might can decrease the number of the aircraft, even if Yamato can not reach to Okinawa (Ito 207J). Actually, the mission of the battle of Okinawa was to delay the landing to Kyusyu, a part of the mainland to keep the emperor system (Ishiohara 90). What is needed to be said here is that the commander of the combined fleet, the captain of Yamato, and even the crews had known that it was the Tokko and know the defeat of Yamato (Yoshida 46J). They had already known the fact that the Japanese aircraft sank Prince of Wales at the Maraya offing, and the fact there were no way to the head of a technology and an overwhelming amount of the bombing (yoshida 22J). There was the accurate comment of the crew which grasped the situation.

“The side which makes no progress never wins. To lose and be brought to one’s senses: that is the supreme path.
“Japan had paid too little attention to progress. We have been too finicky, too wedded to selfish ethics; we have forgotten true progress. How else can Japan be saved except by losing and coming to its senses? If Japan does not come to its senses now, when will it be saved?
“We will lead the way. We will die as harbingers of Japan’s new life. That’s where our real satisfaction lies, isn’t it? (Yoshida 40E)”

This is how Yamato went to Tokko, the road there was no way back. There were, however, many other Tokko like Kamikaze or Kaiten, same as Yamato, and how people remember Yamato might be slightly different from them. As Axell and Kase indicated, “Yamato” is the ancient name for Japan, and Yamato is glorified by Japanese youth, this is proved by today’s animations, comics, or novels (170-171). First, the name “Yamato” is easy to remember for Japanese and it is used in some famous animations or comic books as a symbol of Japan. “Utyu Senkan Yamato (space battleship Yamato)” or “Chinmoku no Kantai (the Silence Fleet)” is the most famous in these culture. As Fusanosuke Natsume, the comic columnist, pointed that the youth in 1970’s had the image of Yamato as the symbolized tragedy rather than the memory of the war in the space battleship Yamato (112). Similarly, Yamato is the submarine’s name in the Silent Fleet, which declares its independence and allays with Japan, then has many victory against the U.S. Navy. Of course, there are many other ships called Yamato in animation and comics.

The name value is the one of function to remember Yamato, but the Tokko in these stories is also issue. Actually, people could find easily many animations or comic books in which people go to Tokko to save others. As Natsume has picked up, there is hero self-sacrifice in comic by Tezuka Osamu, or in animation by Miyazaki Hayao (22, 135). Furthermore, in the very famous animation, the Mobile Suit Gundam, there are many Tokko through its series. In this way, Tokko spirit is surely accepted in modern Japan, though this is not only for Yamato.

At last, there is another reason why Yamato is still remembered and accepted after the war. The Japanese people has some feeling toward the Japanese Navy. Ito had reminisced in his book that the combined fleet is familiar to the Japanese and the name “Rengo Kantai (the Combined Fleet)” will always in Japanese heart (12E). Similarly, Natsume remembered his young time as children would believe that Japan had defeated against the U.S. because of just the gap of the sources, the Japanese technology was supreme to that the U.S., and actually the parents answered in this way if they were asked the reason of Japanese defeat (61). Nakahara and Sagawa supplement this point that the skill of the Japanese Navy was equal to the U.S. as they had developed the battleships like Yamato or the Zero-Sen (aircraft) and the oxygen torpedo (83). Moreover, the Marine Self-Defense Force (MSDF) expresses they are the right successor and Kase had confessed that he had heard that there would be no MSDF if Yamato was captured by the U.S. from the officer in MSDF (171). Maybe it can not help for people to have these feeling if they compare the Navy with the Army which did a catastrophic crushing defeat at Nomonghan (Nakahara, Sagawa 83). Then Yamato is the symbol of the Japanese Navy and its technology. In reverse, the Kamikaze or Kaiten was also symbol of the slipshod strategy by the Navy at the same time. With Yamato, however, people might remember the glory of the Japanese Imperial Navy rather than her Tokko.

As a summary, Yamato is symbol of the Japanese Navy above all. How people remember her could be a parameter that how they think about the Navy. Today, people also know that Yamato’s last navigation was Tokko to save the mainland by making the battle in Okinawa prolonging and her newest technology at that time like the huge main armaments or the pouring and drainage system did not show their ability against attack from the aircrafts. What Yamato left are, however, clearly seen in today’s shipbuilding skill technologically, and in today’s culture as animation or comic books mentally. In addition, she was the battleship which could not catch the progress and trend. As Yamato crew said the commandment that people without progress never get victory might be the biggest parting gift from Yamato to people today. Yamato was the boast of the powerful Japanese Navy, the treasure house of technology, and the shame of missing to get on in the age. The movie “Yamato” will be released in this winter as already mentioned, and people might find other things what Yamato left after watching it.