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Yamato to be salvaged. [Link]

KURE, Hiroshima Prefecture--Despite jaw-dropping costs and immense technical difficulties, business leaders here plan to salvage parts from the sunken World War II imperial battleship Yamato.

Officials said the project would help revitalize this area of western Japan.

The 65,000-ton vessel, regarded as one of the greatest warships of its time, was built in Kure in 1941.

The Yamato was on its way to Okinawa when it sank off Kagoshima Prefecture on April 7, 1945, following an attack by U.S. aircraft. Only 276 of the 3,332 people on board survived.

A five-member preparatory panel announced the plan Thursday. In the words of one official, "We hope to have the real thing on exhibit" so as to revitalize this once-thriving naval port that developed as a shipbuilding center. The official called the Yamato a "symbol of Kure." The panel is headed by Seiichiro Okuhara, chairman of the Kure Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Kazushige Todaka, chief of the Kure Maritime Museum, more commonly known as the Yamato Museum because it has a replica of the battleship on display, is among the members. The city of Kure is joining the project as an observer.

The panel said an executive committee will be formed in April to start the drive to raise funds, which it estimates will run into billions of yen.

The Yamato lies about 350 meters below the surface, some 200 kilometers west of Cape Bonomisaki in southern Kagoshima Prefecture.