Holometabolism

CREDITS:

Kongo: Numéro, March 2010.

Haruna: Vogue Paris, April 2012.

Hiei: Vogue Australia, July 2009.

Nagato (pictured): Vogue Germany, May 2010.

Yamato: Fashion Poland, Spring 2012.

Kirishima: Vogue Paris, October 2008.

Musashi: GQ British, January 2009.

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Name: NAGATO

Class: NAGATO

July 1946 – Nagato, now in American hands, is used to test the detonation of nuclear weapons. Stationed near Bikini Atoll she sinks on July 31 from the shock of a nuclear underwater explosion. Her fate is…unique.

Name: HARUNA

Class: KONGO

24 July 1945 – American naval forces, able now to sail in and out of Japanese waters with impunity, undertake a new assault against Haruna. On the twenty-eighth, after taking at least eight bombs, the last Kongo-class battleship sinks.

Name: HARUNA

Class: KONGO

22 June 1945 – B-29 bombers strike Haruna as it lies docked at harbor. Damage is light.

Name: YAMATO

Class: YAMATO

7 April 1945 – The third wave around 13:40 leads to a combination of bomb and torpedo hits. Fires erupt around the ship. Within an hour Yamato begins to sink. 90% of its crew of 2,332 goes down with the ship. She never reaches Okinawa.

Name: YAMATO

Class: YAMATO

7 April 1945 – The second wave against Yamato comes in around 13:18. A handful of torpedoes, all aimed at port side where the first wave hit, severely reduce the giant’s speed and knock out her auxiliary rudder.  As she lists fifteen degrees, she is incapable of firing her main battery.  The attack ends at 13:45.  Yamato is battered but still fighting.

Name: YAMATO

Class: YAMATO

7 April 1945 – US planes, having deciphered the plans for the Yamato, begin their attack on the enormous sitting duck. The first attack wave takes place around 12:40. Two bombs and one torpedo strike Yamato.  The battering stops around 1:00.  Many aboard the ship derive courage from the ordeal as she continues to sail toward her destination.

Name: YAMATO

Class: YAMATO

6 April 1945 – Yamato sets out on a desperate mission: sail to Okinawa with only enough fuel for a one-way trip and with absolutely no air cover at all (ten ships altogether), run aground at the beach, and train her guns on the American invasion force trying to take over the island.

Name: HARUNA

Class: KONGO

1 January 1945 – Haruna undergoes extensive repairs, still functioning after a year in which most battleships seeing significant action were sunk. Nagato remains, and of course, Yamato. The ill-fated vessel has somehow outlasted more favored ships like Musashi.

Name: KONGO

Class: KONGO

21 November 1944 – On the way home from stay at Brunei, Kongo, Yamato and Nagato are spotted by the USS submarine Sealion II. Sealion II aims for Nagato but hits Kongo instead. The battleship begins to list. Sealion II attacks again hours later and Kongo finally sinks taking 1,200 men with her.