European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 4, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                August 1985 the stars and stripes Page 9 Hulk of giant japanese battleship found Tokyo a a japanese Salvage team announced saturday that wreckage found in the East China sea off Southern Japan is from the world War ii sunk in 1945 on a suicide Mission that marked the virtual end of japans Imperial the Japan broadcasting showed pictures of the taken by a camera on a the pictures showed twisted and rusted canisters for Large Aliber guns and the Imperial chrysanthemum Crest on the Only capital ships cruisers and larger vessels in the Imperial Navy were Deco rated with the chrysanthemum the bearing the ancient name for was one of two ships that were the largest battleships Ever built in secrecy in the 1930s and launched the Yamato was equipped with nine guns that could hurl shells 25 both it and its sister saw action in the Pacific but they were too slow to escort Carrier their builders considered them to be in although Little used in com they had a near mystical Quality that persists to the present the Musashi was sunk by Carrier based planes in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in october after action at the Solomon Truk and in other the Yamato was kept mostly in port at near during the Battle for Okinawa in april the japanese government decided to Beach the giant ship and use its guns against american land forces in a final desperate Effort to turn the fighting in japans on april the Yamato sailed from on japans Inland with just enough fuel for a one Way a photo drive for husbands Freedom bearing a poster with soviet dissident Anatoly she Haransky his i Arches outside the site of the High level meeting As it was being held last week in the poster the dissidents wife is carrying reads Shch Aransky jewish prisoner of conscience in soviet the next the battleship and its escorts a Light Cruiser and eight destroyers were attacked by some 380 planes from american crippled by bombs and hits from at least 12 the Yamato blew of its Crew of Only about 260 were the loss of the Yamato left the once powerful Imperial Navy with one Battle the which saw no further action and later became a target ship in the 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini another search team had previously located the same wreckage in 1982 but could not establish conclusively that it was the that team left an Anchor buoy to Mark the after viewing photos and Shigeru one of several senior designers of the confirmed that the wreckage was that of the the nationwide daily yom Iuri one of several private companies sponsoring the the newspaper reported that the wreck Lay about 180 Miles Southwest of Kagoshima on japans southernmost main Island of in feet of it said the wreck was in two main a boat midship Section about 560 feet and a 264foot Stern the two hulks form the shape and size of the the newspaper the Salvage team was organized in june by author Jun who wrote the Book Yamato and her Crew about the Battle the search used the Baths Cape Pisces chartered from a British Sal Vage numerous books and films have been produced about the and models of the with its Low Silhouette and distinctive Pagoda Are popular among Young one plastic version Sells for about researchers say feared using bomb against Germany first Washington a from the America targeted Japan and not Ger Many for the first atomic bombing because of greater fear of German two researchers once secret documents show that the decision to atom bomb Japan in August 1945 was based on political rather than military journalist editor John Kelly and scientist Arjun Makhijani told a news conference charging that postwar estimates have vastly exaggerated the number of Allied casualties that would have occurred during an invasion of the researchers said the secret Manhattan project to develop the atomic and its huge had Cre ated powerful momentum and temptation to use it without military the current Star wars research into an antimissile defense could generate similar temptations to use new weapons without any military said who is the editor of the National a quarterly Magazine that reports on what it Calls conflicts Between the military intelligence Community and constitutional Kelly and Makhijani disputed a general belief that Japan was the first targeted nation because it was apparent that Germany would be Defeated before the atomic bomb was they said Japan was targeted in May two years prior to the end of the War in at a time it was expected that the first atomic bombs would be ready in september Japan was targeted largely because of the fear if the bomb was a the with their atomic would learn More from the unexploded parts and make More deadly use of them than Makhijani he said there also was some fear the germans would retaliate using poisonous radioactive Materi als against great concern that the bomb might be a fail ure led to a preliminary target selection of the japanese Fleet at the Island of in the so that if the bomb did not explode it would sink and be difficult to the researchers in his president who made the final decision to use the wrote that the atomic bombings had saved a half million american although prior to their publication in 1955 the president had used lower the researchers there appears to have been a vast exaggeration perhaps As a rationalization for the Makhijani one of the Central documents in the re port target Japan is a to secret june memorandum to Truman and the joint chiefs of staff from the joint War plans it estimated casualties at including killed or missing in for an invasion of Southern the Southern japanese main in november followed by a decisive invasion of the Tokyo Plains about March to end the War by nearly a year after it actually Truman was concerned by the Prospect of casualties that the documents prompting Douglas Macar supreme Pacific to Tell Washington in a message three Days later that i do not anticipate such a High rate of loss from operation As the inva Sion plan was oldest Active commissioned ship is retired Maine a the ships Bell rang eight the commissioning pen Nant was and the 73 Crew members marched ashore to the Wail of the with the coast guard Cutter Duane was decommissioned marking the official retirement of the nations oldest Active commissioned its not so much the As in the but the and its the people breaking said Joseph Ryan of the duanes explaining the sadness that pervaded the proceedings at the naval Reserve Commodore Robert com Mander of the first coast guard praised the Duane As a Lifesaver and a the 327foot vessel served in world War ii and the Vietnam War before being reassigned to drug the skipper of the Lawrence was born in 1936 the same year the Cutter was finished at the Philadelphia Navy at the Murphy read from a letter sent by president Reagan urging the Crew to be heartened by the knowledge that your vessel will be remembered for her longevity of service and for the deeds that you performed aboard named for William the nations Lith Treasury the ship is being replaced by a state theart Cutter based further South along the Atlantic the decommissioning leaves Portland without an Active coast guard vessel based in its Harbor for the first time in the duanes steam engine became some thing of a curiosity in an Era of diesel pow ered steam Power is much less Effi a tact that contributed to the decision to retire the after the Cutter is stripped of its it is to be towed to Boston and stored at a commercial shipyard until officials decide whether to scrap it or sell