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The Story Behind Building the Battleship Yamato: an Intellectually Stimulating Movie Choice for FReepers
IMDB Movies ^ | June 2021 Release | Takashi Yamazaki, Director

Posted on 12/13/2021 5:45:09 PM PST by poconopundit

This weekend my wife and I watched a feature length Japanese movie on TV Japan entitled The Great War of Archimedes, a movie that has nothing to do with Archimedes, and there's actually only one -- terrific -- intense battle simulation scene in the flick.

I'll do my best here to convince you FReepers that this is a great choice to watch (in English subtitles) -- and try to not give the plot away.

What the Movie IS and IS NOT:



TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Politics; Science; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: greatwarofarchimedes; guysflick; japan; japanesemovie; worldwareleven; wwii; yamato; yamoto
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To: Huskrrrr

21 posted on 12/13/2021 7:08:20 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: Captain Walker

I don’t doubt it. I think Yamamoto was under duress to make the decision, and wrote disparagingly about it. But he did as he was ordered. The army leaders were calling the shots. I read (somewhere, can’t find a peep about it right now) that a military plan to assassinate him was narrowly averted by a promotion. Oh, there is almost a reference to this on the wiki-wacky page. The assassination worry was in 1939, IOW a couple years before Pearl Harbor.

Glad our fliers killed his ass when they did. I don’t think it had much of an impact on the outcome, because the Japanese high command understood that they didn’t have sufficient fuel available to keep their fleet in action as much as necessary, thanks to our fighting men.

If the Midway plan had gone according to, Pearl Harbor would have been in range and would have become useless to the USN. Would have been a lot harder war, and longer, because we needed to get close enough for the Enola Gay and the Bochscar to hit their targets.


22 posted on 12/13/2021 7:10:06 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: poconopundit

Twist? Was it like last summer? ;^)

Subtitles? I’ve found I’m much less able to put up with subtitles or furrin accents anymore. That’s my main complaint about some of the YT documentaries I might otherwise enjoy.


23 posted on 12/13/2021 7:12:33 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: poconopundit

Hmm, I have a book on the building of the sister ship Musashi. The most amazing thing to me was the amount of trouble they had to go through to drill the wooden pads on which the hull sat in the dry dock.


24 posted on 12/13/2021 7:12:52 PM PST by glorgau
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To: poconopundit; al_c; AFreeBird; aMorePerfectUnion; A Navy Vet; AnotherUnixGeek; Antoninus; ...

Looping in the movie ping list.

I had not heard of this film, but it sounds like it’s right in the zone for a lot of us. Adding it to my watchlist.


25 posted on 12/13/2021 7:16:11 PM PST by sphinx
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To: sphinx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw8XZEdotiA


26 posted on 12/13/2021 7:26:25 PM PST by sphinx
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To: poconopundit

The Yamato and her sister ship were indeed brutes but poorly constructed as the Armor was made using a inferior process which left it brittle due to contamination as post war tests proved it would shatter if hit even by 12in rounds and a 16 in round would go right though it. But the biggest and most telling weakness was Damage Control on both Battleships and overall for the entire Japanese Navy. The lack of Damage Control procedures and practices doomed both ships years before they ever sailed.


27 posted on 12/13/2021 7:35:53 PM PST by dpetty121263
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To: sphinx

bfl


28 posted on 12/13/2021 7:38:58 PM PST by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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To: SunkenCiv
I think FDR's oil embargo forced their hand.

There was a debate underway among the Japanese leadership as to whether it would be smarter to let the US extend itself across the Pacific and have the fight in the vicinity of Japan or to throw the dice as Yamamoto proposed. (Interestingly, it was Yamamoto himself who foresaw the firebombing of his country by the Americans if they ever reached striking distance, and he foresaw this as early as 1940.)

The number of planes must be doubled also. If such a large fleet is organized, I will not be content to withdraw to the Inland Sea and such places and wait for an opportunity to strike out. This is even in the event that war should break out and Tokyo should be in flames by the action of the United States Air Forces. If huge fires break out in Tokyo and Tokyo is completely destroyed by fire three or four times; and if I must witness it while waiting for a strategically opportune time, I cannot remain still.

At Dawn We Slept

29 posted on 12/13/2021 7:40:38 PM PST by Captain Walker ("The side that has Truth gets Humor as a bonus.")
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To: BenLurkin

Yeah, it blew up real good.


30 posted on 12/13/2021 7:43:01 PM PST by Huskrrrr (Alinsky, you magnificent Bastard, I read your book!)
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To: GraceG

“They mostly modernized themselves!!!”

Yes they did, but they sent thousands of young Japanese around the world to study at some of the world’s best universities.

Admiral Togo, the hero of the Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese war study nautical science and naval science in Great Britian for about six years along with eleven other naval cadets (Wikipedia: Admiral Togo).


31 posted on 12/13/2021 7:45:07 PM PST by Maine Mariner
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To: poconopundit

Two reasons why we didn’t build huge battleships like our enemies did. An American built ship had to be low enough to clear the Brooklyn Bridge and thin enough to fit through the Panama Canal.


32 posted on 12/13/2021 7:48:20 PM PST by Hillarys Gate Cult
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To: NativeSon

StarBalzers!

An epic anime space-battle/comedy!


33 posted on 12/13/2021 8:01:25 PM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: Captain Walker
Vice versa -- the Japanese were warned about the consequences of various things they were obviously planning to do, and over time the grades of useful scrap metals available from the US kept vanishing, and grades of fuel oil got cut off, from the top down. By 1942 they had the oil in the Dutch East Indies, but our subs were blowing holes in their shipping. By the end of the war, the US had built 28 aircraft carriers, 71 escort carriers, over 200 subs, and I'm doing this from memory, so, I probably screwed that up.

Parshall stated that the US economy was 5 times larger than that of Japan in December 1941, and was 8 times larger by August of 1945. In addition to their four big decks, they lost irreplaceable combat pilots (best in the world at the time) and skilled ground crews, not to mention loads of aircraft (those not shot down ditched, rather than surrender at Midway, as that was considered dishonorable). By the end of the war, the US had built a staggering 300,000 aircraft of all kinds, including (it sez here, I had to do it) nearly 100K fighters, nearly 100K bombers.

34 posted on 12/13/2021 8:01:49 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Captain Walker

It is my understanding that Yamamoto told the Imperial Staff that attacking the United States would be a disastrous blunder because he had studied and traveled throughout the US as a junior naval officer and saw what we were capable of industrially. But they told him to plan for attack anyway and he dutifully did so.


35 posted on 12/13/2021 8:13:01 PM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: glorgau

I’m sure you know there was to be a third sister: the Shinano. Once their carrier force was wrecked and the older sisters unable to find deal opportunities to engage, the IJN decided to convert her to a fleet carrier. But one of our subs sank her before she could really work up her crew and air wings.


36 posted on 12/13/2021 8:19:53 PM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: poconopundit

Any giant lizards crushing cities or puking up fire?


37 posted on 12/13/2021 8:25:58 PM PST by The MAGA-Deplorian (. Democrats are lawless because Republicans are ball-less!)
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To: sphinx
Reminds me of a movie back in the 70s, Space Battleship Yamamoto.


38 posted on 12/13/2021 8:55:04 PM PST by Wayne07
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To: Captain Walker; SunkenCiv
You may or may not be surprised to know that there was no small number of high-ranking Japanese officers who were telling Yamamoto this very same thing when he first brought up the idea in January 1941.

I don’t doubt it. I think Yamamoto was under duress to make the decision, and wrote disparagingly about it. But he did as he was ordered. The army leaders were calling the shots. I read (somewhere, can’t find a peep about it right now) that a military plan to assassinate him was narrowly averted by a promotion. Oh, there is almost a reference to this on the wiki-wacky page. The assassination worry was in 1939, IOW a couple years before Pearl Harbor.

12/06/2021 - "Misremembering Pearl Harbor" by VIctor Daavis Haonson

The Yamamoto Myth

Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of Pearl Harbor, is often romantically portrayed as a mythical almost reluctant warrior who supposedly all along knew that he would awaken a sleeping giant by the attack. Thus, he accepted the reality that he could only run wild for six months before he was overwhelmed by American industry, technology, and righteous furor. In this historically incomplete view, the taciturn Yamamoto was a tragic hero ordered to find some impossible strategy of defeating a much larger and stronger United States.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Yamamoto himself agitated for the surprise Pearl Harbor attack. And he even threatened to resign if a skeptical General Tojo and Emperor Hirohito did not grant him a blank check to bomb the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Hawaii, a diversion of resources many in the Japanese military felt was unjustified, especially with the ongoing and increasingly expensive quagmire in China.

39 posted on 12/13/2021 9:08:45 PM PST by MacNaughton
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To: poconopundit

Thanks! Sounds great.


40 posted on 12/13/2021 9:25:17 PM PST by griffin
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