High quality steel are expensive and they need it for rebuilding. Mining iron and smelting it would be costly and the coffers aren't exactly bountiful after engaging in a world war.
There's no history you could possibly write where battleships live forever. I mean, she's one of the few that lived, and she still got used as nuke testing material.
As they say, the trick to having a happy ending is in knowing where to stop the story with a lie of "Happily Ever After". In real life, the hero of every story dies at the end.
Missouri ? 20 years younger than Nagato, and still floating on water rather than under. That one got better retirement plan. But of course, she's from the side that win the war.
Missouri ? 20 years younger than Nagato, and still floating on water rather than under. That one got better retirement plan. But of course, she's from the side that win the war.
The Missouri was decommissioned several times, spent most of its life in mothballs or as a museum, and is currently also decommissioned, and "living" as a museum. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Missouri_(BB-63)
(If we're going by personifications, wouldn't that be like sitting at the bar, talking about how great you used to be to all the youngin's that come 'round to hear?)
The sheer number of historically important ships that got dunked by that oceanic nuclear detonation testing has always saddened me.
The worst was USS Saratoga, one of only 2 pre-war aircraft carriers to survive the war. And the other survivor, USS Enterprise, the ship that received the most decorations for valor in the history of warfare...got cut up for scrap metal.
The worst was USS Saratoga, one of only 2 pre-war aircraft carriers to survive the war. And the other survivor, USS Enterprise, the ship that received the most decorations for valor in the history of warfare...got cut up for scrap metal.
The current USS Enterprise apparently would be impossible to preserve, because they have to cut the ship wide open to remove its nuclear reactors. There just wouldn't be enough ship left to make into a museum. No excuse whatsoever for the previous one, though.
Magus said: No excuse whatsoever for the previous one, though.
After watching Battle 360 in one sitting it seems that a good amount of the Enterprise's crew preferred it that way. One stated he couldn't stand the thought of kids running around the ship like it was some sort of amusement park.
There's no history you could possibly write where battleships live forever. I mean, she's one of the few that lived, and she still got used as nuke testing material.
As they say, the trick to having a happy ending is in knowing where to stop the story with a lie of "Happily Ever After". In real life, the hero of every story dies at the end.
Oh you could write a history where battleships live forever, but they wouldn't be happy histories.
When you want to level everything dozens of miles off the coast (without using nukes); you don't call in the aircraft carriers, you call in the "TO HELL WITH THE EXPENSES!"-battleships.
Whether you win or lose, as a ship your destiny isn't looking bright.
You got to considerate that they're the vehicles that handle one of the worst working environments in the world. The sea is really cruel, I say.
Eldest of the world's strongest seven sistersKaga: It's meaningless if you can't hit.
Nagato: Gununu...After war, Nagato as the only surviving IJN battleship is used as target for nuclear bomb testing.
After surviving two nuclear blasts, she silently sank five days after. Even now, she's still resting at the bottom of the Bikini Atoll.
Ironically, Nagato is the only ship left of the Big Seven.
Even now, she's still charming divers from all over the world.
* Mutsu is destroyed in explosion. The Nelsons and Colorados are all scrapped after war.In 1920, she's completed with 41cm guns. The first of the world's Big 7* and the fastest battleship among them.
Her existence caused great influence to the world's naval power and caused 15 years of "Naval Holiday"**
In the other hand, before and during the war, she's regarded as symbol of the IJN among Japanese and even shows up in Karuta cards.
Nagato and Mutsu are the pride of Japan.
* Big 7: Seven battleships are finished before the Washington Treaty, making them the only seven ships with cannons above limitation set by the Treaty. They are Nagato, her sister Mutsu, two Nelson class battleship (United Kingdom) and three Colorado class battleship (United States).
** Naval Holiday: 15 years period between the start of Washington Naval Treatry in 1922 until Japan renounced the Second London Naval Treaty in 1936. During this period, military shipbuilding is limited to avoid arms race between nations after WW1.
"Nagato and Mutsu are the pride of Japan" is a well-known text written on some prewar Karuta cards.
Nagato is excited before the Japan-America war begin. But what awaits her is a cruel reality. During battle training in 1941, Nagato got chased around by submarines and got made into a plaything by Ryuujou-chan and Kaga-san's children with no way to fight back (>_<)
That is the story that ended the "Big Battleship Doctrine".
In fact, the Pacific War ended wihout Nagato-san ever seeing decisive battle against other battleships.