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In February 1944,
the Imperial Japanese Navy approved the
development of a new top-secret weapon called a
"kaiten," a manned torpedo to be launched from a
submarine. A base for kaiten production and
testing was opened on Otsushima Island in
Tokuyama Bay in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The first
kaiten attack on American ships took place on
November 20, 1944, and kaiten attacks continued
until the end of the war. Due to strict military
secrecy surrounding the kaiten program, facts
concerning deployment of manned torpedoes did
not get disclosed to the Japanese public until
after the war.
Submarines carried
between two and six "kaiten" torpedoes, which
the pilots would enter from the submarine when
ready to launch them against enemy vessels. The
kaiten had the following attributes: 550
horsepower, 14.75 m (45 ft.) length, 1.55 ton
explosive charge on its front, top speed of 30
knots (about 56 km/hour or 35 mph), and range of
23 km (14 miles) at top speed. The pilot sat in
the middle of the kaiten and could use a
periscope to verify the location of the target,
although this could result in detection. Kaiten
attacks resulted in sinking only two American
vessels with the loss of 162 American lives, in
comparison to 106 kaiten pilots who lost their
lives, including 15 killed in training
accidents. The kaiten pilots' ages ranged from
17 to 28. In addition to the kaiten pilots, more
than 600 men died as eight Japanese submarines
carrying kaiten were sunk.
Most of the images
below were taken at the Kaiten Memorial Museum
which opened in 1968 at the site of the original
kaiten training base on Otsushima Island. Other
photos were taken at the Yamato Museum
in Kure, Hiroshima and Arashiyama, Kyoto.
Text courtesy of Bill Gordon, "Kamikaze Images" |