Raise the Yamato?

[ArmouredCarriers]

submitted without comment...

 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/07/28/national/history/ldp-lawmakers-aim-raise-battleship-yamato-wreckage/#.VeoMJRGqpBf

 

LDP lawmakers aim to raise battleship Yamato wreckage

A group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers is considering whether the government can launch a project to salvage wreckage from the World War II battleship Yamato from the bottom of the East China Sea.

The lawmakers are also considering collecting the remains of the Imperial Japanese Navy crew members who died when the ship was sunk April 7, 1945, by the U.S. Navy as it steamed toward Okinawa.

According to sources, the group believes the project would highlight Japan’s pledge never to wage war again as this year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The Yamato was built in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, in 1941. It was carrying a crew of 3,332 when it sank in some 350 meters of water. Of them, 3,056 died.

The LDP group began meetings on the possible project on July 16, talking to government officials and the head of the Yamato Museum in Kure, to discuss ways to recover the wreckage.

The group plans to ask the government to cover research costs to gather images of the battleship and study the project’s technical feasibility.

The government is cautious about such projects.

A health ministry official said collecting the remains of sailors lost at sea is not allowed because the government recognizes the ocean as the grave of a crew member who dies while serving aboard a ship.

The Cultural Affairs Agency said that since the ship sank outside Japan’s territorial waters, it can’t conduct research under the country’s cultural assets preservation law.

While some relatives of the crew have called for the recovering the Yamato’s wreckage, others favor leaving it as it is.

[HowitzerBlitzer]

Imagine how much money you could get for scrapping it!

[Macabe]

War Graves should just be left alone.

[JAKERTANKING]

War Graves should just be left alone.

theyre pulling a hunk of metal out of the sea, not spitting on anyone's tombstone. people are ao sensitive.

[HowitzerBlitzer]

War Graves should just be left alone.

 

Tell that to mother nature.

[Macabe]

theyre pulling a hunk of metal out of the sea, not spitting on anyone's tombstone. people are ao sensitive.

 

The ship itself is a grave of over 3000 people.

[darien22]

War Graves should just be left alone.

 

True but it is a two-sided arguements which are both right .

[Daigensui]

War Graves should just be left alone.

 

The Western concept of war graves does not apply in East Asia. 

[HowitzerBlitzer]

The Western concept of war graves does not apply in East Asia. 

 

The weaboo has spoken.

[Tears_of_Destiny]

theyre pulling a hunk of metal out of the sea, not spitting on anyone's tombstone. people are ao sensitive.

 

I'm fairly certain there's a couple of people entombed within that ship.

 

But seeing as it's a different culture, I'm of the firm opinion that Japan and Japan only should have the only say in what's being done.

[Cruiser_Abukuma]

You know, this topic is very similar to the arizona topic but with differences. IMO, if japan wants to raise her then let them. I understand that she is a war grave but if the country of her origin wants to raise her then let them. 

[Sturmkurz]

Yamato could sit somewhere as a daunting lesson as why you don't attack a sleeping dragon.

[JAKERTANKING]

 

I'm fairly certain there's a couple of people entombed within that ship.

 

But seeing as it's a different culture, I'm of the firm opinion that Japan and Japan only should have the only say in what's being done.

im sure there are more than a couple, but in my opinion its not disrespectful to lift a dead ship out of the water, the bodies are most likely decayed and broken down by the salt water by now. they arent trying to be disrespectful, theyre just trying to recover a peice of history, so that those who did die on the ship may be properly remembered.

[Jracule]

It's easy to say they want to do it, the real question is whether they could pull it off. 

 

The Yamato was bombed and torpedoed to within an inch of its life, when it sank the magazines exploded, and pieces of it are scattered across the sea floor. 

 

Even if by some miracle that they can justify using the money for such an ambitious project, the resulting thing they pull from the water is not going to be pretty.The ship led a short but hectic life. Better to let her rest quietly and be remembered for what she was rather than break her up more so people may gape at her wreckage.

[DoomStomper]

 

I'm fairly certain there's a couple of people entombed within that ship.

 

But seeing as it's a different culture, I'm of the firm opinion that Japan and Japan only should have the only say in what's being done.

 

^^This.

 

More specifically, the remaining family members of the deceased sailors.

[AirCrewChief]

Japanese culture and religion have vast differences from American "culture".  I'd say it's up to them to decide, no one else.

[Guest]

As much as I love a good old battleship, and the Yamato at that, it would be more cost-effective to simply build a replica at 1:1 scale. 

[Killer1941]

My question is why are they digging her up? Just to scrap her or for historical/emotional reasons? If they want to just scrap her how much would digging her up cost and how much would they get out of it? If it is for historical/emotional reasons and Japan doesn't have the same views as us on their war graves then yeah dig her up. I don't really agree with it but my opinion doesn't matter to them. Also how badly would that hurt the ecosystem? No doubt after many decades of being down there she has become the home of sea life.

[Batwingsix]

I would have to agree about leaving the men aboard remain in place for their eternal watch and let them rest in peace, however if they do decide to raise it, hopefully they would have the common sense to give the remains they find aboard (if any after this long) a proper military burial. Although they were our enemy, they were soldiers who died in service to their country none the less.

[Kilroy357]

Don't see how that would work. The wreck isn't exactly in good condition.

 

 

For the cost of bringing it up and making it recognizable, you could pretty much build another ship specifically for a museum. Then there's the ethical debate about war graves and coral reefs.

I suppose they could try raising a turret but even that is nearly 2800 tons of steel you somehow have to get off the ocean floor. Only good news is it's relatively shallow water.

[Panzer876]

They should just let the Yamato rest in peace. Digging it up would be like digging up a graveyard. 

[paladin0]

War Graves should just be left alone.

 

Someone should tell China that, they are salvaging wrecks all over Indo-china waters, treaties be damned. 

[EricT2015]

How is that even realistically possible? That's a huge amount of weight to pull up.

[1Sherman]

I myself have no opinion on the "war graves" subject, but I do see a flaw in the plan to raise the Yamato. The ship was torn apart when its powder magazine detonated as it sunk. The ship is in pieces and after 70 years of sitting on the ocean floor, those pieces are liable to be in a state of decay that would cause them to fall apart if they were to be moved.

[red33wspc]

Imagine how much money you could get for scrapping it!

 

At todays scrap steel prices about 25 million dollars. That is taking the weight and converting it to metric tons and checking the scrap steel price ( $380 per metric ton). There would be some brass, copper and other metals but how much is any one guess. Also the condition of the steel after 70 year on the bottom of the ocean is questionable at best.

 

Red