Shinano was an aircraft carrier built by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War and was the largest such ship built up to that time. She was laid down in 1940 as the third Yamato-class battleship, but after Japan lost four carriers at Midway in 1942, her nearly finished hull was converted into a carrier. Her conversion was incomplete in November 1944 when she sailed from Yokosuka to Kure carrying 50 Ohka rocket-propelled kamikaze flying bombs. On 29 November 1944, ten days after commissioning, she was hit by four torpedoes from the US submarine Archerfish. Around 1,435 sailors and civilians were lost, including her captain, and she remains the largest ship ever sunk by a submarine.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.