Maybe some lone pilot flew over and got a picture. Or could the pic be taken by a Japanese spy? We may never know.
" The aerial photo was taken by a US reconnaissance plane on April 6, 1945, off Tokuyama in Yamaguchi prefecture, western Japan, five hours before the Yamato made its final sortie.
Yes, that would be a dude named Commander Eddington, the only man in the US Navy who knew how to fly a B-25 and a dead ringer for Kirk Douglas, on a suicide recon mission after sexually assaulting a pretty young nurse named Ensign Dorn. About the time he radioed in the location of Yamato, he was shot down by Japanese fighters. His boss, knowing of his crime, declined to nominate him for any decoration.
It was all set to film in the Otto Preminger classic, In Harm's Way.