The Imperial Japanese Navy’s Yamato-class warships were the largest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, ...

KURE, Hiroshima Prefecture--A massive lathe used to precision shape the main gun barrels of Japan’s mighty World War II battleship Yamato is now on public display at the Kure Maritime Museum here.

Yamato's nine main guns, mounted in three turrets, were the largest to ever crown a warship. They fired shells 18 inches in diameter, and each armor-piercing shell weighed as much as a small car.

The U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command estimates that the main guns of the Yamato had a range of 22 miles when firing 3,200 pound shells. To put that into perspective, ...

KURE, Hiroshima Prefecture--A massive lathe believed to have been used to fashion the main guns of Japan's mighty World War II battleship Yamato was in danger of becoming a rusting relic until a ...

Each gun weighed over 360,000 lbs, or 180 tons, which is more than three M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks. The Yamato carried nine 18.1-inch guns in three turrets. These cannons were only used on the ...

It carried a crew of around 3,000 men and each one of its main gun turrets was as heavy as a destroyer. Morris calls the Yamato "an ironically beautiful instrument of death." ...

The Imperial Japanese Navy’s Yamato – along with her sister ship Musashi – was the largest battleship ever constructed. her nine 46cm (18.1-inch) Type 94 main guns employed were the largest ...

the main concern for the naval architects in japan was how to keep this much steel afloat. ... narrator: the "yamato" has its big guns, but they are totally ineffectual against aerial assault, ...

Morris keeps a model of the Yamato at her writing desk. “In the glow from my computer screen,” she writes, “her silhouette still strikes me as lovely, dreadful, pitiful and reproachful.” ...