Article: Battleships: Monsters of the sea: History of the rise and fall of the vessels.(Arts)(Television)

Battleships have always had a symbolic value beyond their physical one. In the early days of World War II, Adolf Hitler hesitated to launch the battleship Deutschland onto the high seas, wary of the psychological effect of the Allies sending "Germany" to the bottom of the sea. President Harry S. Truman chose the decks of the mighty battleship USS Missouri - in Tokyo Bay, Japanese home waters - for Japan's World War II surrender. And nothing could better symbolize the sun setting on Japan's imperial ambitions than the sight of the great Yamoto, the largest and sturdiest battleship ever built, being sent on a suicide mission off Okinawa in April 1945.

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