{"product_id":"battleship-yamato-alexander-wooley-9798892410205","title":"Battleship Yamato: The Ship, the Myth, the Legend","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis book explores the enduring legacy of the battleship \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eYamato\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e, weaving together history, myth, and cultural impact to reveal how a wartime icon became a symbol of Japan's identity and imagination across generations. ​\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe battleship \u003ci\u003eYamato\u003c\/i\u003e was conceived as the ultimate expression of Imperial Japan's naval power--the largest and most heavily armed battleship ever built. Yet her significance did not end with her destruction in the final months of World War II. In this book, author Alexander Wooley traces \u003ci\u003eYamato\u003c\/i\u003e's story from secretive construction and brief combat career to her extraordinary afterlife as one of Japan's most enduring cultural symbols. Wooley explores how a single ship came to bridge history and myth, continuing to shape cultural conversations long after the guns fell silent. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeginning with \u003ci\u003eYamato\u003c\/i\u003e's design and deployment, Wooley places the ship within the strategic ambitions and constraints of Japan's wartime navy, culminating in her final mission and sinking in 1945. But the heart of the book lies beyond the battlefield. Wooley shows how \u003ci\u003eYamato\u003c\/i\u003e--despite limited operational impact--came to represent far more than a warship. In the decades after the war, she became a vessel of memory, shaped by defeat, loss, and national reckoning. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on wartime records, postwar accounts, interviews, and cultural analysis, the book follows \u003ci\u003eYamato\u003c\/i\u003e's interpretation in museums, literature, film, anime, manga, and video games. From ship to space cruiser to mythic protector, \u003ci\u003eYamato\u003c\/i\u003e reflects Japan's evolving relationship with its past and its efforts to reconcile wartime experience with postwar identity. Each reinvention reveals as much about society interpreting her as they do about the ship herself. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalancing naval and cultural history, this book offers a focused examination of how technology, memory, and imagination intersect. It will appeal to readers interested in World War II at sea, Japanese history, and the ways nations remember--and reinterpret--their most powerful symbols.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Alexander Wooley\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798892410205\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Naval Institute Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/18\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Alexander Wooley","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48520189083903,"sku":"9798892410205","price":44.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_dea2646d-ead9-451b-9131-2220419dad24.jpg?v=1778741272","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/battleship-yamato-alexander-wooley-9798892410205","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}