Requiem for Battleship Yamato

There is no surer way than this, to protect it with his life. Knees rubbing and shoulders touching, they attempt to bind each other's legs and hips to the binnacle. It would be a matter for shame if by any chance they should float to the surface. There was a nisei serving on Yamato! From California, he'd been at Keio University when the war started and was now intercepting Allied communications.

Meanwhile, his brothers were fighting for the Allies in Europe. Yoshida uses katakana throughout, thus emphasizing the sense of immediacy, of reading a military dispatch. Naval officers, battleship captains, World War II buffs. Most everyone who knows anything about the Pacific War has heard of the Battleship Yamato - Japan's mighty flagship, one of the biggest warships ever built. Unfortunately, it was built too late, to fight the previous war. World War II was a war of air power in which carriers would make battleships obsolete.

The Yamato barely saw action before its final voyage, where it was sent to defend the Japanese homeland and was sunk within sight of port by American torpedo planes. Requiem for Battleship Yam Most everyone who knows anything about the Pacific War has heard of the Battleship Yamato - Japan's mighty flagship, one of the biggest warships ever built. Mitsuru Yoshida was a junior officer aboard the Yamato, and one of the few survivors, so his story is interesting for historical reasons, but he's no great storyteller, nor is his individual story that interesting, so his account is simply a dry narrative about serving aboard the Yamato , then setting out on what everyone knew was its last voyage.

Unlike some other officers, like Tameichi Hara or Hans von Luck , Yoshida doesn't spend any time trying to justify himself or explain that he was really against the war all along - he was just a junior officer serving as he was told. There is one sad episode in his narrative in which he describes a Nissei crewman aboard the Yoshida who had family still back in California, and who died when the Yamato went down.

Yoshida mentions writing to his mother in America after the war, and receiving a reply from her in which she was proud of her son's service, and his honorable death, despite the fact that he was fighting against her adopted country. This must have been the sort of divided mentality many Japanese-Americans, or Japanese with American relatives, felt, and indeed, Admiral Yamamoto and other high-ranking officers, who had lived and studied and traveled in the U.

Yoshida's memoir, however, is mostly just an account of the battle itself, and in its sparse prose and his very Japanese reflections on life and death and beauty, he humanizes an enemy that was deeply dehumanized to us during the war. I cannot, however, make an observation like that without noting that in fairness, the Japanese were guilty of even more atrocious dehumanization of their foes. He went into the ocean when the Yamato went down, and was rescued afterwards, and spent time in the hospital coughing up oil, and lived until Apparently his book was made into a movie in Japan in I'll have to track it down someday.

Harrowing and moving, the trials of a sincere and loyal soldier on a pointless and suicidal mission are brought to life.

Requiem for Battleship Yamato

It's so easy, in discussions of international conflict and battle, to forget that at the end of the day it's people. All the way down. War bring Harrowing and moving, the trials of a sincere and loyal soldier on a pointless and suicidal mission are brought to life. War brings more than just death, and "heroic death" is hardly as clean as government propaganda and Hollywood movies want you to believe. The chaos, confusion, desperation and cruelty are interspersed by moments of transcendence but not redeemed by them.

The first half of the book is picturesque, if a bit slow, but the second half is fast-moving and intense. The introduction discusses the author's commitment to pacifism and the effects of Occupation censorship on the initial publication, as well as the book's distinctive Japanese writing style. The translation appears by all measures to be quite competent. Another takeaway, when bombs dismember rooms full of people on a battleship, somebody has to go through and dig through the pieces to assess the extent of the damage. Nov 21, C. The word death, or ideas associated with it, must have appeared on every page.

Time after time, the author Mitsuru Yoshida repetitively asked himself about the useless nature of his current mission, then encouraged himself to die honorably in the defense of his home country. It probably took until the halfway point in this page book before I realized that I was being offered an incredible i "By the time I was perhaps 30 pages into the book, I told myself how terribly depressing the book was. It probably took until the halfway point in this page book before I realized that I was being offered an incredible insight into the psyche of a Japanese junior officer.

It was an insight into the concept of self-sacrifice for the greater good and the mentality of absolute dedication to a profession. Jan 07, Yvonne rated it it was amazing. I am a WWII buff, so this book was a no-brainer for me to read.

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I don't normally read introductions that are of great length, but it was necesarry for this book. This was a true story about one of the last great battleships of Japan during WWII, written by one of a very few survivors. The introduction is important because not only was it written by the interpretor of the orignal version, it also gave a view of the survivor and his reasons for writing his story after the fact. What is most interesting is that the reader gets a viewpoint of the war not from a U. Extraordinary Could not put it down.

Well written, well translated. Intimate view of the Japanese a Imperial Navy's final battle, and the men who perished aboard the Battleship Yamato, through the eyes of an ensign stationed in the command center. The introduction in my edition was awful; the book incredible. The reviewer who describes it a "Mishima porn" has it right, but it's five star Mishima porn. As long as you skip the intro. Mar 02, Gary rated it it was amazing Shelves: If for nothing else, and there was a lot more to recommend, I recommend this book so that you can read about Lt.

Very hard to put down. Jan 15, Sarah Crawford rated it really liked it. This is a very interesting book by a man who was actually on the Yamato when it was attacked and sunk by U. His writing style is very good and gives a person a very good idea of just how horrible it was at the time of the attack. The book also has an introductory section explaining about the kamikaze attacks, and some photos. At the very beginning, the sailors had no idea where the Yamato was going to go. There was a Nisei serving on the ship, having been drafted while attend college in This is a very interesting book by a man who was actually on the Yamato when it was attacked and sunk by U.

There was a Nisei serving on the ship, having been drafted while attend college in Japan. He was used to translate American radio intercepts. Admiral Ito strongly objected to what was planned for the Yamato and the ships that accompanied her. He objected to the fact that there was going to be no air cover for the ships. By this time, Japan should have realized that air cover was of extreme importance, and ships out on their own were relatively easy pickings.

He also pointed out that the Japanese force had ten ships; the opposing American force had sixty. He also wanted a night attack which the Japanese were relatively good at , and not a day attack.

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The author also makes a reference to how Japanese officers would routinely hit those under their command if they did something that the officers didn't like. He also writes about the spirit of the crew. The Yamato and the other ships were to draw off American forces from Okinawa, and to allow the kamikaze air attacks that were taking place to have a better chance of success. The ships had only enough fuel for a one-way trip to Okinawa, the Yamato assigned to destroy enemy ships, beach herself, and use her big guns while she could, then offloading the sailors so they could fight with the Japanese ground forces.

They knew that they would be subject to air attack, and they also realized the danger from American submarines.

His description of the attack is very clear, very realistic. Feb 08, Magdalena Stockinger rated it really liked it Shelves: I really enjoyed this book, even though the reality of it is quite shocking and I usually don't read that kind of genre. In my the only problem with this text is the translation itself, I haven't found a japanese version yet and I'm aware that the original writing style is quite difficult, but something just felt off about it.

Jun 27, Dr. Elder rated it it was amazing. This book is written in a poetic style that may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I was not at all put off by the tact. Of course, the story is based on the rather pointless sacrifice of the mighty Yamato. The onboard action details portrayed are compelling, and as terrible as anything one can imagine during the war.

Requiem for Battleship "Yamato"

The death of many men is presented in brutal detail, but the theme of duty above all else is strong throughout. One marvels at men being able to function while so much ordnance is h This book is written in a poetic style that may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I was not at all put off by the tact. One marvels at men being able to function while so much ordnance is headed their way.

For anyone interested in what a look at what death is like when a ship is being pummeled by air power, this is an ideal account. For those interested in technical details, this is not quite the book you are looking for. It is a humanistic endevour, and one of great literary power.

I recomend this book without any reservations whatsoever! Jan 16, Stephen McCarthy rated it really liked it. On April 7, , American planes dropped bombs and launched torpedoes that destroyed Yamato less than halfway from mainland Japan to Okinawa. Over four thousand Japanese officers and men in the task force perished in the attacks, and only four damaged destroyers made their way back to Japan with survivors, including Yamato men rescued from the water Spurr , In Requiem for Battleship Yamato , Ensign Yoshida Mitsuru, an assistant radar officer in his early twenties, gives a firsthand account of Yamato 's tragic voyage and his unexpected survival.

Censors under the American Occupation prevented publication of Requiem for Battleship Yamato after its completion in because they considered it to be "an instance of the Japanese militaristic spirit" p. The book finally got published in , after the Occupation restrictions had been lifted. The book underwent many revisions from until its first publication in , and minor changes continued until Yoshida issued the definitive edition in , a year before his death.

Requiem for Battleship Yamato

Richard Minear used the version for this English translation. Yoshida writes in a terse style, depicting nearly all events from his viewpoint as a junior officer on Yamato. As a consequence, the book gives limited historical background and does not provide the American perspective.

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Persons interested in a complete history of Yamato 's final mission should read Russell Spurr's A Glorious Way to Die , which also depicts events in the week prior to the great battleship's sinking. However, Spurr's history provides details regarding actions and opinions of other American and Japanese leaders and participants.

Yoshida's abrupt writing style leaves out many details, but the reader can glimpse the intense emotions of Yoshida and the other men on Yamato. He has many reflections about death, especially when in the sea after Yamato has sunk and when he returned alive to the mainland. These extended reflections cannot be easily summarized, but after his rescue he does conclude on his future, "Make of this moment a turning point toward a life of constancy and dedication" p.

Minear worked together with many Japanese and American experts to translate this book into English. The result turns out to be an admirable translation of a very difficult Japanese literary work written in terse bungotai , a literary style used for military documents and certain forms of poetry.