Yamato images are hard to find. Japanese systematically destroyed all information about Yamato class ships, including all of the photographs they could lay their hands on. Most existing images are taken either during the running trials or by the American fighter pilots. Here is a collection of images I have managed to locate from various sources. Note that there are lot of images also in the Final Voyage section, that are not shown here. Please let me know if you have some material that is not yet published here.
Yamato in Action.
Yamato Anatomy - click for enlargement. Reconstructed from NOVA.
Yamato during running trails on the 30th October 1941. This photograph was seized by Occupation Authorities in Japan following the end of World War II.
Part of the crew gathered in front of the main guns.
Yamato during running trials on October 30th 1941.
This particular image was taken during an earlier battle with American carrier aircraft on October 24, 1944 as Yamato transited the Sibuyan Sea.
Yamato at the construction deck at Kure. Note the sailormen on the deck compared to the size of the main guns.
Yamato is hit by a bomb near her forward 18 inch gun turret, during attacks by U.S. carrier planes as she transited the Sibuyan Sea.
This hit did not produce serious damage. Picture from US Naval Historical Center.
The superstructure of Yamato. Increased number of AA guns as well as the cremembers on the right are clearly visible.
HIJMS Yamato
Yamato, Musashi and Nagato at Brunei on October 1944.
Japanese Center Force fleet leaves Brunei on October 22nd to head into the battle of Sibuyan Sea and Battle off Samar. Yamato, the third ship from the right, is about to fire her big guns for the first time as is Nagato which is following right behind her. The last ship is Musashi, which is to be hit by 17 bombs and destroyed two days later. After the war the only surviving ship is Nagato, which was sank soon after in a series of American atomic tests at Bikini Atoll in July 1946.
Yamato under heavy air attack from the Allied Task Force 58 on he 19th March 1945. She survived this one. Photographed from a USS Hornet (CV-12) plane. Source: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-fornv/japan/japsh-xz/yamato.htm
Yamato own ammunition explodes and she goes down on April 7th, 1945, 2:43 PM after fighting without air-support against 400 Allied warplanes.
The back deck of Musashi's was similiar to the one on Yamato. The crane was used to lift the floatplanes back onboard.
Yamato elevation
Drawing from Warships of the Imperial Navy, 1869-1945, Naval Institute Press, 1970
Artist's view of Yamato