Researchers Find Wreckage of Huge Japanese Submarine

Republished from News10.Net

June, 2005

HONOLULU (AP) -- The wreckage of a large World War II-era Japanese submarine has been found by researchers in waters off Hawaii.

The I-401 is from the largest class of submarines built before the nuclear ballistic missile vessels of the 1960s. They were 400 feet long and nearly 40 feet high and could carry a crew of 144. The Japanese Navy designed the subs to carry three "fold-up" bombers that could be assembled for flight within minutes.

An I-400 and I-401 were captured at sea a week after the Japanese surrendered in 1945. Neither completed planned wartime missions to spread biological agents over U.S. cities or bomb the Panama Canal.

After the end of the war, both subs were ordered to sail to Pearl Harbor. They were deliberately sunk later, partly because Russian scientists were demanding access to them.

A footnote from Oz Ostapeck:

I did work on the I 201, the one I came back on. The story I have told many times is:

We had Japanese workers working with us in tracing out the electrical and mechanical systems and at lunch time, they remained on board and ate with us. They received a tray of food and in one corner of the tray was a piece of apple pie. They could not use the knife, fork and spoon served with the tray but they knew that we were welding bunks into the sub for our return to the U.S. One of the workers took a welding rod, broke it in half and used it for chopsticks.

Not such a great story but what really impressed me was the fact that all of the little flakes of pie crust which we can't pick up with a fork was easily handled with the makeshift chopsticks. He really liked the pie too.

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