山城は扶桑型戦艦の2番艦として建造された、2隻目の国産超ド級戦艦です。大東亜戦争中期まで、姉妹艦の扶桑と共に瀬戸内海の柱島泊地を拠点に砲術学校の練習艦として使用されました。
厳しい教練がなされ、『鬼の山城』と新兵たちに畏れられました。その後、ミッドウェイ海戦での大敗により戦局が悪化したことを受け、電探を新たに装備し、対空武装を強化した上で戦線へと引き戻されることになりました。昭和19（1944）年10月25日未明、西村祥治中将率いる艦隊の旗艦となった山城は、姉妹艦 扶桑や重巡洋艦 最上、駆逐艦４隻と共にアメリカ艦隊が集結するレイテ湾へ向かってスリガオ海峡へ突入しました。そこで繰り広げられた壮絶な夜戦で集中砲火を浴び、沈没しました。生存者は極めて少なく、その凄絶な戦闘の実態は今に至るまであまり語られていません。

Battleship HIJMS Yamashiro
“The towering pagodas 1944 -Yamashiro in the moonlight-”
Yamashiro was the second ship in the Fuso class and the second super Dreadnought battleship completely built in Japan. Up until the mid-part of the Greater East Asian War (the Pacific War), along with her sister Fuso she served a gunnery training ship at the Hashirajima range near Kure Naval Base. The officers were very strict in their training, and the new recruits nicknamed the ship “The Demon Yamashiro”. After the grievous losses suffered at the Battle of Midway, she was fitted with radar and increased anti- aircraft armament and sent out to fight. At dawn on October 25, Showa 19 (1944) as the flagship with Vice Admiral Nishimura Shoji on board, she entered Surigao Strait along with her sister ship Fuso, the heavy cruiser Mogami and four destroyers on the way to Leyte Gulf, where they were attacked by the American fleet. Despite the heroic efforts of her crew in the extended battle, she was pummeled by many gun hits and sank. Only a few of her crew survived, a testament to how ferocious the battle was.