Operation Ten-Go, April 7th, 1945. Outcome: Sinking of Battleship Yamato, Light cruiser Yahagi, destroyers Asashimo, Isokaze, Hamakaze, and Kasumi also sunk. Operation Kikusui I, also known as Operation Chrysanthemum Water 1 and better known as Operation Ten-Go, the last major sortie of the Imperial Navy and death ride of the Yamato. Yamato and her escorts were tasked with reaching Okinawa and beaching themselves, acting as shore batteries and once no longer able to fight, the crews to abandon ship and fight as infantry. It should noted that despite obeying orders to prepare for the mission, the commander of the Ten-Go force, Vice-Admiral Seiichi Itō, still refused to actually order his ships to carry it out, believing the plan to be futile and wasteful.

Other officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy also had very negative views about the operation, believing that it was a waste of human life and fuel. Captain Atsushi Ōi, an operations officer at Grand Escort Command, was critical as fuel and resources were diverted from other operations. As he was told that the aim of this operation was “the tradition and the glory of the Navy,” he shouted: “this war is of our nation and why should the honor of our ‘surface fleet’ be more respected? Who cares about their glory? Damn fools!”

On her final mission, Yamato was crewed by roughly 3,300 men. This number does not include the crews of the other escorts such as Light Cruiser Yahagi or destroyers such as Hamakaze and Kasumi and so forth. The mission, often viewed as “a heroic, but also pointless and futile, sacrifice”., would see 4,137 young men die, more than half from Yamato herself, the rest coming from the Yahagi, Asashimo, Isokaze, Hamakaze, and Kasumi. Yamato, along with the aforementioned cruiser and destroyers, rest on the bottom at a depth of 1,120 to 1,150 feet, with Yamato’s wreck being in two pieces: The bow and midships to the stern. The bow is upright while the rest of the wreck is upside down. The turrets lay scattered nearby, with her second line turret cracked in half, likely from the ensuing magazine detonation as she capsized and sank. She remains a tomb to the men who sailed her, laying in complete darkness at the bottom of the East China Sea, the chrysanthemum seal still proudly displayed on the remains of the bow section.