Requiem for Battleship Yamato Audiobook By Yoshida Mitsuru, Richard Minear - translator cover art

Requiem for Battleship Yamato

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Requiem for Battleship Yamato

By: Yoshida Mitsuru, Richard Minear - translator
Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
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Requiem for Battleship Yamato is Yoshida Mitsuru's story of his own experience as a junior naval officer aboard the fabled Japanese battleship as it set out on a last, desperate sortie in April 1945. Yoshida was on the bridge during Yamato's fatal encounter with American airplanes, and his eloquent, moving account of that battle makes a singular contribution to the literature of the Pacific war. The book has long been considered a classic in both Japan and the United States. As with most great battle stories, its ultimate concern is less bombs and bullets than human nature, less death than life.

©1985 University of Washington Press (P)2014 Audible Inc. Americas Military United States Wars & Conflicts World War II War Imperial Japan
Compelling Firsthand Account • Poetic Descriptions • Excellent Narration • Philosophical Depth • Historical Authenticity
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Couldn’t stop listening to a historically best written book I have read in years. Please download it

Japanese Naval history at its very best. Can’t go wrong listening to it.

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I grew up reading books about war and still do.

This somehow did. It show up on my radar until my dad recommended it last month. I couldn’t have enjoyed it more.

I’d read other books from the Japanese perspective—like Japanese destroyer captain—but this was easier to read given there’s no killing of Americans.

What sets this book apart—aside from the first hand take on Japan’s glorification of death—was how miserable it is to fight America. The author describes it like poetry. For example, he describes trying to hit American planes with antiairfcraft fire as akin to “trying to catch butterflies with your hands.”

He is continually impressed with American ingenuity and precision.

Couldn’t recommend anymore

Oh, it’s super short too. It goes quick.

Should be required reading

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Not so much a story about the battle or the ship. It is an insightful look in the culture behind the Japanese Imperial Navy. The acceptance that the game was lost, and futility of the conflict leading up to these events. Real history, not popular history.

interesting insight

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the orator was very well versed, the story of the Yamato was very compelling and the fact that it was told by a survivor made it much more riveting. The use of personal memories and letters from crew members added such a insightful view of the Japanese sailor as to how they conducted themselves in battle and at rest was very telling of how and why they were so very brutal and aggressive towards lesser ranks and to prisoners. The brutality that they had to the lesser class structure on board ship, basically kept everyone in a state of fear and submission so that if they would have tried to be derelict in there duties at there post, they would be to fearful of the repercussions they would face from peers or officers.
l thoroughly enjoyed the book and will replay it again. I will also look for it in hardback edition to add to my collection.

Gripping and factual story

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In pondering the brutal reality of survival itself, there are many sentiments that nature drives into man. This book captures these in eloquent ways that are stirring and deep. One of these sentiments is the grim fact that many survivors' fates, and those dead alike, were up to chance. With this in mind, it is ironically exciting to consider a book written by a survivor who had the skill to pen his deepest thoughts as art. Would chance be so kind as to allow the darkest and scarcest parts of life to be experienced and accounted for by an artist? It is so with this book. It is a must read for those interested in the topics of Battleships, The Second World War, and the perspective of life during this time.

An intimate, poetic, and poetic recapture

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If you could sum up Requiem for Battleship Yamato in three words, what would they be?

Tragic, honest, humane

Who was your favorite character and why?

The author in the glimpses you see of the person writing the book, not his self at the time. He's able to show how he had been wrapped up in the suicidal militaristic mindset of the soon-to-be defeated Japanese while not bogging it down into moral or psychological analysis. The book is an account of what people did, said, and felt--it does not waste time performing moral or psychological analysis--the facts are too valuable here.

Which character – as performed by Graeme Malcolm – was your favorite?

I'll never forget the incredible poignancy of the senior officers going down with the ship but stopping the junior officers from doing the same. Mitsuru's crisp bureaucratic (in the sense of an excellent ship's log) prose reports only the facts, but earlier discussion of the blindness of the Japanese Navy's senior ranks leaves the reader with the thought that they were going down with more than the ship.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

It's something like a Japanese equivalent to With the Old Breed (and the brilliant movie, The Thin Red Line, although this, being set on a ship, has less interaction with nature and man's relationship to it). So I would work that into a tag line.

Brutally Honest Account of Institutional Idiocy

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Poetic and philosophical, this is an amazing and beautiful memoir of a very unique moment in history. Truly one of a kind. The narrator is very good too, capturing the spirit of the text and precisely conveying the atmosphere of this thoughtful work.

Simply amazing. One of a kind.

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This is an exceptional story told humbly and is well balanced. It allows us to peer into our humanity and beyond.

Breathes life back into the Yamato and crew

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I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of listening to a Japanese point of view the biggest disappointment was a British voice telling the story overall it was very engaging with a lot of detail

Nice piece of history

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I was surprised at the brotherhood expressed. Also it was like an anti Pearl Harbor. Such a gem

Wow, life well lived.

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