End of The Imperial Japanese Navy
On 16 November 1944, DesRon 10 was deactivated and Yahagi was assigned as the flagship of Rear Admiral Komura Keizo's new DesRon 2. Yahagi was ordered back to Japan on the same day for refit. It remained in Japanese home waters until March 1945.
On 6 April 1945, Yahagi received orders for "Operation Ten-Go", to attack the American invasion force on Okinawa. Yahagi was ordered to accompany Yamato from Tokushima for its final suicide mission against the American fleet.
At 1220 on 7 April 1945 the Yamato force was attacked by waves of 386 aircraft (180 fighters, 75 bombers, 131 torpedo planes) from Task Force 58.
At 12:46, a torpedo hit Yahagi directly in her engine room, killing the entire engineering room crew and bringing her to a complete stop. Dead in the water, Yahagi was hit by at least six more torpedoes and 12 bombs by succeeding waves of air attacks. Japanese destroyer Isokaze attempted to come to Yahagi's aid but was attacked, heavily damaged, and sank sometime later. Yahagi capsized and sank at 14:05 at 30°47′N 128°08′E / 30.783°N 128.133°E / 30.783; 128.133 taking 445 crewmen with her. Rear Admiral Komura and Captain Tameichi Hara were among the survivors rescued by Hatsushimo and Yukikaze. Her survivors could see the Yamato in the distance, still steaming south as U.S. aircraft continued their attacks. However, in reality, Yamato was only minutes away from sinking.
Yahagi was removed from the Navy List on 20 June 1945.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Cruiser Yahagi (1942)
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—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.
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