Yamato’s armor was astonishingly thick, with a 410mm belt along the waterline and 650mm on the main turret faces, designed to withstand massive 18-inch shell impacts hurled from rival American ...

KURE, Hiroshima Prefecture--A massive lathe used to precision shape the main gun barrels of Japan’s mighty World War II battleship Yamato is now on public display at the Kure Maritime Museum here.