She was conceived in the mid-1930s, when battleships were the ultimate weapons
in naval warfare. The Imperial Japanese Navy intended Yamato and a class
of sister ships to be the greatest battleships of all—with more powerful
guns, advanced optics, and impenetrable armor. But by the time Yamato
entered service on December 16, 1941, aircraft carriers had begun to overshadow
battleships. The attack on Pearl Harbor just a week earlier made it clear that
airpower would be decisive in the Pacific War. In the war's last days, as
Yamato lay on the seafloor, orders were given to destroy all
documentation of the ship. Fortunately, some photos and fragmentary drawings
survived, and a passionate historian named Janusz Skulski, over the course of
20 years, developed detailed drawings of the ship's anatomy. In this
interactive, explore Skulski's drawings and learn what made Japan's seemingly
unsinkable ship vulnerable to attack.—Susan K. Lewis
