Hotspots : ON
Go Back

Battleship Yamato :

Under the Washington Naval Treaty, the IJN could only maintain three battleships for every five American ones. When Japan left the League of Nations and abrogated the Washington agreements in 1934–35, the country’s leaders immediately began planning to build new vessels that were larger and more powerful than any possessed by Japan’s only possible naval rivals, Great Britain and the United States. Between 1937 and 1940, Japan began construction on four mammoth battleships of the new class, but only two were completed—Yamato and her sister-ship Musashi. The Japanese admirals believed the new battleships would give them a decisive advantage in the grand clash of fleets they expected to bring them victory in a naval war.

Hide