Calling all Yamato (大和) and Musashi (武蔵) fans

[bucketfoot-al]

I would not be surprised by discovery of Yamato photos from the personal photo albums of former Japanese servicemen. There was one discovered a few years back of a personal photo of a Japanese lieutenant commander in tropical uniform leaning on the railing of his ship. Behind him can fairly clearly be seen the stern of the Yamato minus the aircraft crane. Appearently the crane was unshipped for some reason. There was also another fairly close up personal photo of the Yamato moored to a bouy, taken from a low eye point onboard a launch just as the launch rounded the bow of a another ship, probably a cruiser, moored close to and just ahead of the Yamato.

Finally there was a photo I saw once that I've been trying to find again ever since. It was another close up taken from a launch. This one was very close up, and show the section of the hull around the boat hangers outboard of the 3rd turret. The photo was close enough to show weld seams on the boat hanger.

Hey Chuck ... you wouldn't by any chance have either of those 2 photos? The first one doesn't sound like anything I've seen - the crane-less shot is particularly intriguing as it may be from the 1945 configuration when the crane mast was removed. I am pretty sure I have the second photo on my website, but its not very high res. In it the Yamato had the tropical sun canvas open above the main deck to shield the crew.

In any event I'd love to put them up online - with proper attribution as to their source, of course!

[Doug Hallet]

Vlad, the one of the officer is in the latest edition of the Super Illustrated Yamato book. The Yamato is way in the background, so you can't make out anything other than that the crane tower is missing.

[bucketfoot-al]

Thanks, Doug.

[chuck]

Hey Chuck ... you wouldn't by any chance have either of those 2 photos? The first one doesn't sound like anything I've seen - the crane-less shot is particularly intriguing as it may be from the 1945 configuration when the crane mast was removed. I am pretty sure I have the second photo on my website, but its not very high res. In it the Yamato had the tropical sun canvas open above the main deck to shield the crew.

In any event I'd love to put them up online - with proper attribution as to their source, of course!

I believe I have both. The first photo is unlikely to be from 1945 as the lieutenant commander is in tropical whites and shorts. I will scan them this weekend.

[Doug Hallet]

The photo is captioned as Masayoshi Murayama on the deck of Zuikaku in Truk lagoon. Later, he was a polar explorer, presumably on Soya.

[bucketfoot-al]

Thanks Chuck! I will PM you my email address!

Doug - thanks for the info. I will use it if I choose to add the photo to the site.

[Senkan]

Just think - John Wayne defeated by Yamato. And I had no idea this picture was out there.*

I was a Yamato fan way back when I was in high school. I thought I would stay up one night and watch a naval movie called "In Harms Way". Imagine my surprise when I say Yamato. Mouth wide open and 4 letter words rolling off my tongue. Great memories...

BTW...The Yamato in the movie was good. But if you look again you will see the forward 6.1" turret only has 2 barrels.

[bucketfoot-al]

Hi y'all! If you are using the Firefox Browser, you can go to the link below and "wear" the Yamato persona I just created on your computer.

It won't change anything on your screen size-wise, but at the very top, the toolbars will become see-through and behind it you will see Yamato tearing her way at 28 knots during her trials in 1941.

Give it a try. I think it came out pretty well.

Here is the link:

http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/340432

[Atma]

WOW thank you
That will make my browser a bit more cheerful

[bucketfoot-al]

Glad you like it! I might do a couple more when I have the time. That picture really lent itself to the 'persona' quite well. just had to use photoshop to 'widen' the sea to the ship's left. I initially put the words "IJN Battleship Yamato" to the left of the ship, but it looked too cluttered. Besides the Hiragana symbols are there already. This was its nice and 'clean' and the light blue color of the sky doesn't obscure the toolbars.

[Atma]

Make a Nagato, Kongo and a Tone !!!
Do I ask too much ? :p

[bucketfoot-al]

Just added a variant of the same persona with the words "IJN Battleship Yamato" in red to the left of the ship. It should take about a day to show up. Just enter "Yamato" in search and it should come up as "Yamato 2."

[bucketfoot-al]

I have colorized pics of Haruna that lend themselves to the same type of persona. Stay tuned.

[Atma]

Thanks again for your effort

[bucketfoot-al]

Firefox Personas for Haruna (2), Nagato, Yahagi, Tone and Musashi should be done by the end of the day.

I will provide links as soon as they are up on Firefox.

Stay tuned.

[Atma]

Thank you thank you Waiting for the links

[bucketfoot-al]

Firefox is taking its time - probably a few people are off for the holidays. By the end of the week they should all be up. I think you will be satisfied. The Tone pic took a long time to do, but its probably the best of the lot. You'll just have to hold on for a bit.

P.S. Just created one for Battleship Ise. A killer shot!

[bucketfoot-al]

The personas are starting to come in. Here is the link to all of them (keep in mind that the latest ones I have done are not in yet as of this post, so keep checking back. I'll do a separate thread once all of them are in and I have corrected little things here and there.

Here is the link: http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/galler ... ketfoot-Al

At last count I have made the following Firefox Personas:

Yamato (2), Haruna (2), Nagato, Fuso, Musashi, Tone, Yahagi, Ise, Zuikaku, Kaga, Hiryu and an I-7 Class Submarine.

They should all be at the above link by Thursday night.

[bucketfoot-al]

OK I just added "Combined Fleet" and "Zeros" personas as well. Wait about a day or two for them to show up.

[dsk]

I just watched Otoko-Tachi No YAMATO last night. It was really interesting to see the war from Japan's perspective. Am I to assume life aboard a typical IJN warship was similar to what was portrayed in the movie?