Photo/Illutration A 1941 photo of the battleship Yamato (Provided by the Kure Maritime Museum)

In a scene from the 2016 animated film “Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni” (In This Corner of the World), a colossal battleship sedately sails before a young married couple gazing down at the sea side by side.

“That’s the world’s finest naval vessel, born at Asia’s best military port," the husband explains, adding that it has a crew of roughly 2,700.

The wife asks with amazement, “Does it prepare meals for so many people?”

The battleship Yamato of the Imperial Japanese Navy, commissioned in December 1941, was outfitted with a state-of-the-art galley that had six “kama” pots, each capable of cooking 600 “go” (about 90 kilograms) of rice.

Officers were even served full-course dinners.

Kosaku Aruga (1897-1945), who commanded the Yamato during its final mission, is said to have been a considerate husband.

“Since I am treated to a sumptuous feast every day at sea, you don’t have to cook a good meal for me at home," he often told his wife when he returned home.

“He was more like a simple country bumpkin than a service member,” his second daughter, 84, recalled.

She has vivid recollections of walking around Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, with her father hand in hand when she was little.

“When he tucked the hem of his kimono in his obi, his ‘steteko’ underpants were in full view. He didn’t care, but I was so embarrassed.”

Every crew member must have had fond memories of their families.

The Yamato, sent on a “naval suicide mission” in the final stages of World War II, was attacked and sunk on its way to Okinawa Prefecture. More than 3,000 lives were lost, including Aruga’s.

“I have always declined to be interviewed,” the daughter said quietly, making me imagine how long and painful the postwar years must have been for the bereaved families of the crew.

The Yamato took four years to build at a cost of what would be the equivalent of 400 billion yen ($3.23 billion) today.

Japan surrendered four months after the Yamato was sunk.

The vessel was seen as a symbol of Japan’s obsession with an outdated “big-ship, big-gun” policy of naval warfare.

But I believe the Yamato represented, in every sense, the fate of militarist Japan.

A haiku by Takewo Yamamoto goes to the effect, “The day the Yamato met its end/ In the sea of oblivion.”

April 7 marks the 77th anniversary of the sinking of the Yamato.

Its remains still lie at the bottom of the sea off the western coast of Kagoshima Prefecture.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 7

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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