laststandonzombieisland

Some 80 years ago today.

Post-war view of Yokosuka, while anchored in Tokyo Bay.

The surrendered 33,000-ton 16-inch gunned Japanese super-dreadnought Nagato can be seen in the right background in this image, 30 December 1945, with the more advanced Iowa-class fast battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) in the foreground, which carried an extra 16-inch gun when compared to Nagato and hit the scales at a massive 57,540 tons at the time due to her immense AAA battery and huge crew.

USN photograph courtesy of David Buell, via Navsource.

New Jersey, launched 7 December 1942 by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, was commissioned 23 May 1943, making her just over two years in the fleet at the time, and had earned nine battle stars for her World War II service in the Pacific. She would go on to serve in Korea (four more battle stars plus a Presidential Unit Citation), Vietnam (three more plus a Navy Unit Commendation), Lebanon, and the Persian Gulf and would only decommission for her final time on 8 February 1991.

She, of course, is a museum ship with at least another 20 years of service ahead of her following her latest dry docking.

Nagato, commissioned on 25 November 1920, had served just over 25 years with the Imperial Fleet but spent the majority of the war in home waters, one of the primary reasons she was still afloat in 1945, albeit a little battered. That would soon change, as she was sunk just seven months after this image was taken, sent to the bottom as a target in the Atomic tests at Bikini Atoll, Operation Crossroads, 29/30 July 1946.

Her decaying wreck will continue to rest on the ocean floor in Bikini Lagoon, some 170 feet down, for decades to come.