Sinking the Supership (2006).

Van Ells, Mark D.

Sinking the Supership (2006)

The Japanese battleship Yamato was the largest and most heavily armed warship in history, and yet it was destroyed within hours of entering its first combat engagement. The PBS series NOVA explores the reasons for the great ship's ignominious end in a documentary entitled Sinking the Supership. Written and directed by David Axelrod and produced by Keiko Hagihara Bang, the film tells the story of the Yamato using archival footage, historical recreations, and interviews with historians and survivors of the battle. Also included is underwater footage from a Franco-Japanese expedition to find the ship's remains.

The genesis of the Yamato can be traced to the Washington Naval Conference of 1922, which limited the number of ships in the navies of signatory nations. The Japanese reasoned that if the number of ships in their fleet had to be capped, they would simply build larger ships with more firepower. Construction on the Yamato took place in great secrecy. American intelligence knew that Japan was building a super-sized ship but grossly underestimated the scale of the undertaking. Once full-scale war in the Pacific broke out, the Yamato proved practically useless as a weapon. Japanese leaders were hesitant to risk the crowning achievement of its navy. More importantly, World War II showed that the era of the battleship was over. As engagements like Pearl Harbor and Midway demonstrated, aircraft carriers had become the most effective way for a nation to project its power and destroy enemy fleets at great distances. The Yamato was obsolete before she ever hit the waves.

By 1945, the U.S. Navy had destroyed Japan's offensive capabilities in the Pacific, and American forces were closing in on Japan itself. With the invasion of Okinawa that spring, the Americans were just 300 miles from the home islands. In desperation, Japan began to sacrifice pilots and planes in suicide kamikaze missions against U.S. forces, which killed thousands of American troops and unleashed great terror. The filmmakers contend that the Yamato was essentially sent out on a grand kamikaze mission. In April 1945 the vessel slipped out of port to engage the U.S. fleet off Okinawa. American aircraft engaged the giant ship just 200 miles from Japan. Dive bombers strafed its decks, and torpedo bombers hit it below the waterline. The Yamato was engulfed in a massive explosion, split in two, and sank to the bottom, killing nearly 3,000 sailors.

Typical of the NOVA series, Sinking the Supership is a quality documentary. The work is clearly the product of painstaking and thoughtful research. In just under an hour, the filmmakers tell a complicated story in a convincing, authoritative fashion. Perhaps owing to the nature of the battle, the film is not particularly dramatic, and some viewers may find its pace slow and plodding. Nevertheless, Sinking the Supership will appeal to NOVA's traditional audience, and teachers will find it a valuable classroom tool to open discussion about technological change in warfare.

Mark D. Van Ells

Queensboro Community College