It was originally in two pieces on the sea floor.
When discovered in 1985 many people wanted to leave it where it was as a memorial to the 2,498 men who went down with her. However, the families of these men who died said it would be better if it was a floating memorial. For 10 years they lobbied the government for assistance to re-surface the Yamato and restore it to its former glory. In 1995, the government finally gave in and agreed to the creation of a Yamato Memorial Museum, with a 1/10th scale replica, which opened in 2005.
Unbeknownst the Government a secret group of rich industrialists and families of the sailors, created a massive fund totalling over $1 Billion. This was to fund the re-surfacing and recreation of the once mighty Yamato in full scale.
The former owner of the Kure Shipyards, re-bought them and said to the government we are going to start making massive high-tech transport ships to rebuild the Japanese economy. When in actual fact he needed the slipways to hold the re-construction of the Yamato. Instead of in WWII where the construction was only partially covered, a massive building was placed over the slipway so no-one could see what was going on, keeping the construction secret.
Using the latest underwater recovery techniques, the split hulls were resurfaced and placed on the slipways in secret. Further recoveries of additional parts were taken from her sunken sister ship Musashi to complete the full restoration.
In April 2006, she was relaunched in secret again and sent on sea-trials, 12 months after the 1/10th scale museum opened. She proved to just as good as when she was first built. The enthusiastic engineers (many of them worked on the original), swelled with pride to see the floating masterpiece perform so well.
It was was during these sea-trials that a JDS destroyer came across the Yamato cruising at over 35 knots. Nearly 10 knots faster than the original. What was this ship? where did it come from ? and many other questions.
The Captain of the destroyer was instructed to pursue the Yamato and escort it to Tokyo. The Captain of the Yamato (a retired WWII Admiral), obeyed the instructions of the Destroyer Captain and made course for Tokyo.
It arrived in Tokyo Harbour on a Sunday, 12 noon, April 16th 2006, on a weekend where all train services were suspended. Many people however were still in town and they could not believe what they were seeing. Just as the Cherry Blossom season was ending, many thought this was some kind of magical or spiritual time, and they started calling all their friends and family to come and see what must obviously be a miracle. Cellphone networks become overloaded, roads were jammed as people crammed into the city and talk about and see the mighty Yamato.
As it berthed, the skeleton crew and retired Admiral were escorted into custody. The government wanted answers and an explanation as to how this could be. The further investigation led to the arrest of the industrialist who owned the Kure shipyards. Meanwhile the people of Tokyo were celebrating this miraculous event and the morale of the people was so high, the Government know they had a major event to manage carefully.
The industrialist was released on the condition that he hand over the ownership of the Yamato to the Government and the People of Japan. This he gladly did as he and his supporters had achieved what he set out to do - create a floating memorial.
The government over the next few years completed the full electronic fit out of the mighty battleship with 21st technology. The 18in guns were completely recalibrated and were again fully effective again. A full complement of sailors and crew were assigned to the Yamato to make her ready for active duty.
On the 1st January 2010, the Emperor Akihito officially launched new JDS Battleship Yamato. Its main eventual missions, will be on goodwill visits to friends and allies, and touring the world showing the pride of the Japanese People.
I feel like PBEM trackers death was the final nail in the active playing's coffin.
