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They were designed to be the best…
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they met enemies face to face,
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endured tragedies and enjoyed victories…
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they went down in history due to the bravery of their crews…
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they are the ships that deserve to be called
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“Naval Legends!”
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In this episode,
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watch Yamato
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Life and Death of the Legendary Battleship.
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By spring 1945, it became clear that only a miracle
could save Japan from defeat in World War II.
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The Land of the Rising Sun had lost
virtually all its naval and air forces,
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and US troops were already landing on the Japanese islands.
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On the morning of April 6, Japan's legendary
battleship Yamato sailed off to fight her last battle.
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The last bit of hope the Japanese possessed
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rested with this steel giant - the largest
and most powerful battleship of the time.
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That naval operation in the Pacific,
dubbed Ten-ichi-go (Heaven One),
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was a dangerous mission.
But the faith in Yamato was almost religious,
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and the Japanese believed luck would
go hand in hand with the ship.
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The history of battleship Yamato
began 10 years before the ship's legendary last mission.
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In October 1935, Japanese engineers put together
a first draft of the famous naval giant.
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Unlike the Americans, whose ships were limited
to a size that could pass through the Panama Canal
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nothing restricted the Japanese from
building ships of a large size and displacement
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and arming them as heavily as possible.
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Japanese designers set out to make battleships powerful
enough to outmatch all existing foreign counterparts
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and any ships that would be built in the upcoming years.
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The production facilities behind me were the Kure
Naval Arsenal in those days.
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Its dockyard saw the birth of battleship Yamato .
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Her keel was laid in 1937, and the ship was completed 1941.
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Yamato was the heaviest battleship in the world. Back then,
the total construction expenses amounted to 130 million yen.
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That would be over 1 trillion yen
($8 billion) in today’s prices.
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Initially Japan planned to build
a total of four Yamato-class ships.
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However, the Pacific War began,
and after completing the second ship, Musashi,
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Japan stopped building the third ship, Shinano,
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and never started the fourth one.
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Eventually, Shinano was converted to an aircraft carrier.
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Yamato is the ancient name for Japan,
meaning "great harmony."
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Strict secrecy was maintained throughout her construction:
a high fence of mats surrounded the dockyard,
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all engineers swore a solemn oath of non-disclosure,
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and the workers going in and out were compared
with their photos.
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Japanese shipbuilders certainly had something big to hide...
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Total displacement: 72,808 t
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Length: 263 m
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Beam: 38.9 m
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Draft: 10.8 m
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Armament
Main battery
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Three turrets each having three 40-SK Mod. 94 guns
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Caliber: 460 mm
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Secondary battery
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Two turrets each having three Type 3 guns
Caliber: 155 mm
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Anti-aircraft artillery
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Twelve coaxial Type 89 guns
Caliber: 127 mm
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Fifty triple-barrel and two single-barrel
Type 96 automatic cannons. Caliber: 25 mm
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Air group
7 seaplanes (reconnaissance planes and spotting aircraft).
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Armor
Main belt: 270–410 mm
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Main turrets: 190–650 mm
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Conning tower: 300–500 mm
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Power plant
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4 Kampon turbines and 12 Kampon RO boilers
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Power: 154,000 shp
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Maximum speed: over 27 knots
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Operational range: 7,200 nautical miles at 16 knots
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Yamato's key features are her main turrets,
each having three 460-mm guns.
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The guns could fire shells weighing almost 1.5 tons
with a muzzle speed of 790 meters per second.
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A gun turret, including the barbette, weighed 3,000 tons.
It could contain over 150 men.
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Yamato's main turrets were guided by a fire control system,
consisting of a director that provided parameters of fire,
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range-finders, and electromechanical calculators
(a form of early computers).
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It was a state-of-the-art system for the time:
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lack of fire control radars for engaging surface targets
was compensated for by top-notch grouping of salvoes.
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This gave the Japanese firing capability
on par with that of the world's leading navies.
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The ship's secondary battery consisted of two turrets,
each having three 155-mm guns.
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The guns featured excellent ballistic characteristics
and could penetrate the armor of a typical cruiser;
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however, their rate of fire was pretty low.
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When commissioned, Yamato had six coaxial
127-mm anti-aircraft guns for long-range engagement,
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plus short-range anti-aircraft artillery
consisted of eight triple-barrel 25-mm cannons.
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The number of AA guns was constantly
built up during the war.
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The 127-mm anti-aircraft guns
and the 25-mm guns had different ranges of fire.
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So if an enemy aircraft flew into this gap,
neither of the guns was able to effectively intercept it.
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Furthermore, the 127-mm guns had relatively low traverse
speed and poor elevation and depression characteristics.
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They also failed to fire at the declared rate
of 14 rounds per minute if the elevation was high or low.
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Yamato enjoyed the heaviest armor
in shipbuilding history - its US analog, battleship Iowa
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had armor that was on average 100 mm thinner.
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The armor belt of the Japanese giant formed a citadel
that covered slightly over half of her waterline length.
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The most protected part was the ship's conning tower…
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The weapon systems became literally giant.
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The Japanese built a superbattleship
that was like 10 or 15 others put together.
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But the problem was that it did not pay off.
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You can build one Yamato-class battleship,
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but she would still be destroyed
when facing 2, 3, or 10 US battleships.
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There are still such characteristics as mobility,
quantity, quality, salvoes per side...
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Yamato was commissioned in late 1941.
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In her first mission, the Battle of Midway, Yamato served
as the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet.
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During the battle, on June 4 through 6, 1942,
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Yamato did not fire a single shot
and was used only as an HQ ship.
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The Japanese military command was definitely
saving their two best battleships
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for an upcoming major battle against the US fleet.
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As a result, Japanese seamen
started to feel disappointed with their flagship.
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They even made up a saying that the world's three
most useless things were
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China's Great Wall, the Egyptian pyramids,
and battleship Yamato .
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It was not until autumn 1944
that the Japanese naval giant fought its first real battle.
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Together with her sister ship Musashi, Yamato attacked
US landing craft near the island of Leyte.
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In that battle, Yamato was only slightly damaged,
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demonstrated her power, and recovered the status
of an unsinkable giant.
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However, the situation in the Pacific theater
had changed by that time...
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Progress in military technology basically
follows the laws of philosophy.
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When making a new weapon system, designers
and the military usually seek to enhance its specifications:
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bigger caliber, thicker armor, etc.
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Then they come to a dead end,
where they are no longer developing the navy,
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but improving a separate weapon type
within the existing limits.
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A radical change is carrier-borne aviation and,
later, missile systems.
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Yamato is the peak,
the peak in the construction of battleships.
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It is not about progress, it is about reaching the peak.
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In 1945, World War II reached Japan's home islands.
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The command of the Japanese Combined Fleet
made a Bushido-style decision:
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Yamato, with the help of a light cruiser
and eight destroyers,
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was to defend the island of Okinawa
and prevent the US troops from getting any further inland,
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or fight to the end and finish her journey gloriously.
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Executing this order, on April 6, 1945,
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the legendary Japanese battleship
sailed off to fight her last battle....
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The United States sent its Task Force 58
to intercept the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet.
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The Americans would not miss the chance
to destroy the symbol of Japan's naval power.
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As early as at 10 a.m., the first US squadrons took off
from five heavy and four light aircraft carriers,
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located about 300 miles away from Yamato.
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A total of 227 aircraft took part
in the destruction of the Japanese force.
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The battle began at 12:34. Four aerial bombs hit Yamato,
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taking out a 127-mm gun and several automatic cannons.
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In just 20 minutes, two more bombs struck the battleship,
and a torpedo hit her port side.
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In response, Yamato fired her anti-aircraft weapons.
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At 14:02, the Americans launched the last attack
on the wounded, but still combat capable, Yamato…
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It was a demonstrative execution:
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four torpedoes
(three to the port side and one to the starboard side)
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destroyed the ship's damage control center.
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Yamato stopped moving and started listing
to port more and more every minute…
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and when this huge ship capsized,
a monstrous explosion erupted.
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The pride and hope of the Japanese fleet went under.
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Together with the ship, 3,000 crew members were lost,
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including the commanders of the Japanese force and the ship.
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For the Japanese,
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Yamato still remains a symbol of the nation's might
that fell in battle like a true samurai.
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The city where the legendary battleship was built
opened a museum,
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whose centerpiece is an 26-meter model of Yamato .
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The Kure Municipal Museum of Naval History
and Science was built 10 years ago to preserve
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the rich naval tradition of the city.
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Now it is known as the Yamato Museum.
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The exhibits reflect the naval history of Kure;
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in other words, the history
of naval affairs and technologies.
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The museum has become quite popular.
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Fans of battleships come here from all over the country.
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However, we should remember that it was originally dedicated
to all kinds of shipbuilding.
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The violent explosion that finished the
destruction of Yamato
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was caused by the detonation of her main battery magazines.
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However, there is plenty of debate about
the reason for that tremendous explosion.
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The answer is probably hidden on the bottom of the ocean:
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so far researchers have been unable
to lift what is left from the giant battleship...
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It is true that Yamato had a number of drawbacks.
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Like her sister ship, Musashi,
the battleship was sunk as a result of air strikes.
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The key reason for that was the ships' fundamental lack
of ability to resist massive air attacks.
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Yamato remains the largest and
most powerful battleship in history.
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For every person who takes interest
in the history of military ships,
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Yamato embodies military might.
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Born to terrify and crush enemies,
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this formidable steel giant managed to glorify
her name even as she was defeated.
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She represented a pinnacle in large battleship design,
one that will probably never be surpassed,
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and in that sense,
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Yamato will always remain a symbol and a legend.
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