She and her sister ship , Musashi , were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing nearly 72, tonnes 71, long tons at full load and armed with nine 46 cm Yamato was designed to counter the numerically superior battleship fleet of the United States , Japan's main rival in the Pacific. She was laid down in and formally commissioned a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December Throughout , she served as the flagship of the Combined Fleet , and in June Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto directed the fleet from her bridge during the Battle of Midway , a disastrous defeat for Japan.
Musashi took over as the Combined Fleet flagship in early , and Yamato spent the rest of the year moving between the major Japanese naval bases of Truk and Kure in response to American threats. In December , Yamato was torpedoed by an American submarine which necessitated repairs at Kure, where she was refitted with additional anti-aircraft guns and radar in early Although present at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June , she played no part in the battle.
The only time Yamato fired her main guns at enemy surface targets was in October , when she was sent to engage American forces invading the Philippines during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
While threatening to sink American troop transports, they encountered a light escort carrier group of the U. The Japanese turned back after American air attacks convinced them they were engaging a powerful U. During , the balance of naval power in the Pacific decisively turned against Japan, and by early its fleet was much depleted and badly hobbled by critical fuel shortages in the home islands.
In a desperate attempt to slow the Allied advance, Yamato was dispatched on a one-way mission to Okinawa in April , with orders to beach herself and fight until destroyed, thus protecting the island. The task force was spotted south of Kyushu by U. During the s the Japanese government adopted an ultranationalist militancy with a view to greatly expand the Japanese Empire.
