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The remains of a Japanese mini-submarine that participated in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor have been discovered, researchers are to report today, offering strong evidence that the sub fired its torpedoes at Battleship Row.

That could settle a long-standing argument among historians.

Five mini-subs were to participate in the strike, but four were scuttled, destroyed or run aground without being a factor in the attack. The fate of the fifth has remained a mystery. But a variety of new evidence suggests that the fifth fired its two 800-pound torpedoes, most likely at the battleships West Virginia and Oklahoma, capsizing the latter. A day later, researchers think, the mini-sub's crew scuttled it in nearby West Loch.

The loch was also the site of a 1944 disaster in which six tank landing ships preparing for the secret invasion of Saipan were destroyed in an ammunition explosion that killed 200 sailors and wounded hundreds more.

When the Navy scooped up the remains of the so-called LSTs and dumped them outside the harbor to protect the secrecy of the invasion, it apparently also dumped the mini-sub's remains, which were mingled with the damaged U.S. ships.

"It's not often that a historian gets a chance to rewrite history," said marine historian and former Navy submariner Parks Stephenson, who pieced together the evidence for the television program "Nova." "The capsizing of the Oklahoma is the second most iconic event of the attack. If one submarine could get in in 1941 and hit a battleship, who knows what a midget sub could do today. Iran and North Korea are both building them. It's very worrying."

Stephenson and his colleagues have put together a convincing chain of circumstantial evidence, but it is just circumstantial, said Burl Burlingame, a journalist at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and author of "Advance Force: Pearl Harbor."

"There is a good chance that this is the Pearl Harbor midget, but I don't think the case is closed on it," Burlingame said. "At this point, it is not hard evidence."

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Much more at this link.





West Loch at Pearl Harbor.

What happened to the two guys in the sub after the scuttled it? Hari-Kari?

Interesting to see a Japanese sub rolling down main street Fredericksburg, TX.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting. I too wonder what happened to the crew.

I'm still trying to reconcile this photo of the Nimitz Hotel:



With this:



What am I missing here?

As I recall from my last trip to Fredericksburg, the "Steamboat" facade of today was the original design of the Nimitz. It was "updated" sometime, perhaps around 1920 ??? to the "modern" look you see in the photo with the sub.

Recent restorations have attempted to capture the original style again.

If I weren't too lazy to Google right now, I could probably find a history online.

The Texas Handbook On Line has a nice write-up

Saw this NOVA episode the other day. Pretty interesting. Here's one of the photos they were studying, which shows what they think is the Japanese mini sub firing it's torpedoes.



You can see the trails of the torpedoes and what they called "rooster tails"; the unique splashing spray out of the water made by a midget sub's propeller when it shot it's torpedoes. The rooster tail occurred because the sub itself was only about 20 tons and one torpedo would weigh a ton and the weight change was significant enough
to cause it to rock up and down in the water.
Also, the returning shockwave from the torpedo blast caused a similar problems for maintaining control of the small sub.

Those rooster tails and the outline of a sub makes them think that the torpedoes weren't dropped from planes because they have a different splash signature.

I think there was supposed to be one more attack to get the storage tanks on Ford and the dry docks but Nagumo didn't want to risk it. Yamamoto was upset with him for not getting those vital targets.

Missing the oil storage tanks was a major mistake on the part of the Japanese. Taking those out would have crippled the fleet worse than sinking the ships. IIRC it would have taken a 6 months to a year to resupply the fleet with enough fuel to conduct offensive operations.

Coral Sea and Midway might have turned out differently it the carriers lacked the fuel to get there and fight.

quote:

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If one submarine could get in in 1941 and hit a battleship, who knows what a midget sub could do today. Iran and North Korea are both building them. It's very worrying."

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I'm sure you guys are much more knowledgable than me, but hasn't our sonar progressed to the point where these would be picked up pretty easily?

.....especially if they come from countries that are new to the submarine business and don't have years and years of research in underwater acoustics

Our deep water sonar is pretty solid. Brown water is a bit different. We are at a disadvantage with shallow water detection.

Use trained dolphins in brown water.