by Terry Kerby, Ops Director HURL
On March 22 and 23, 2009, the Hawaii Undersea Research Lab conducted dives to the 3 piece Japanese Midget Submarine as part of a Lone Wolf and NHK expedition. This project enabled HURL to conduct a detailed survey of all three sections of the submarine.
The historical significance of these submarine sections is that this is most likely the 5th and final Japanese Midget Submarine from the Dec 7th attack.
HURL discovered the stern section in 1992, the mid-section in 2000, and the bow section in 2001.
The last survey of all 3 pieces of the submarine sections was in 2001. The condition of the submarine has degraded significantly since then. Most notable was the condition of the mid-section. The mid-section is laying on the bottom with a 45° list to port.
The first thing I noticed on our return survey was that most of the periscope has broken off and is laying on the bottom and that the aft part of the conning tower has broken away.
The jagged edges of the after section aft of the conning tower that appeared to have been caused by an external explosion have broken away at the frames. This gives the appearance of a cleaner break now.
There is a hole in the forward starboard side of the hull about 1ft long and 9" wide that was not an open hole when the sub was surveyed in 2001. The hole now affords a clean view into upper area of the forward end of the mid-section.
There is still a major section of this submarine that is missing. The after part of the mid-section from the jagged end where it is presumed the scuttling charge blew the stern off to where this section bolted onto the stern section is about 15ft.
The three pieces of the midget sub are oriented in a Northeast-Southwest direction about 60 to 70 meters apart. Further surveys to the Northeast or Southwest may produce the resting place of the 4th piece if it was dumped with the rest of the sub.
Survey conditions: As with the surveys done on the USS Ward's midget sub, current conditions dictate where the Pisces subs could safely survey the wreckage without causing damage to the wreck site. During the filming and survey of the 3 piece midget submarine changing current conditions allowed us to survey both ends of all pieces. The pieces are close enough together that if the current changed allowing us to get access to a section we could not survey before it was not difficult to move the subs back to another section to conduct a closer survey.
Since the discovery of 3 pieces followed by the discovery of the midget submarine sunk by the USS Ward, HURL has formed a general theory as to how what may be the 5th Pearl Harbor midget submarine may have come to be jettisoned in the Defensive sea area.
The following is a brief review of HURL's history with the 3 piece midget submarine and an overview of how we think it may have come to a final resting place in the Defensive Sea area surrounded by wrecked landing craft.
The Origin of the 3-piece Midget Submarine: The HURL Operations Theory
In 1991 the HURL team did not know anything about the midget submarines involved in the predawn attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th 1941, except that one was sunk by the USS Ward before the air attack started. That same year HURL was invited by the US National Park Service and National Geographic Society to participate in the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor by providing the Pisces V to try to find the resting place of the midget submarine sunk by the USS Ward. We were not able to participate but as a result developed a relationship with Dan Lenihan of the National Park Services Submerged Cultural Resources Unit. It was then we learned the Wards Midget had not been discovered and that 5 midget submarines participated in the attack. We decided then to conduct our pre-dive season test dives in and around the Defensive Sea Area to try to find the Wards midget submarine. 1992 was our first effort and during our first test dive I discovered the stern section of a Japanese midget submarine. It was only because we had become familiar with how they were constructed that I knew what we had discovered. My 2 passengers were convinced we had discovered the Wards midget but it was obvious to me at the time that this section appeared to have been disassembled at the flange joint and rigged with cables and dumped.
We continued to dive in and around the Defensive Sea Area finding many World War II artifacts until 2000 when National Geographic and Bob Ballard were launching an expedition to locate the Wards Midget. On our first test dive of 2000, about a month before the Nat Geo/Ballard project was to start, we came across the mid-section of a Japanese midget submarine. When I saw the conning tower I thought we had actually discovered the resting place of the Ward's midget. The first thing that seemed obvious to me was that the stern section had blown off. I surmised that this might have been where the USS Ward's shell detonated, though I did not see a hole in the starboard side of the conning tower where veterans from the Ward reported seeing the shell hit. When our silt cloud cleared away I moved forward to inspect the bow and was surprised to find it was missing. When I saw the clean disconnection at the flange joint and the cable rigged through a hole in the forward upper deck I realized this was not the Wards midget sub. I realized this mid-section probably went with the stern section we had discovered in 1992 surmised that this midget submarine was probably a prize of war brought back to Hawaii from the Pacific campaign and inspected, disassembled and dumped.
The next year we went back to the same area to conduct our test dives and further survey the mid-section. We located the mid-section and then located the bow section and finally relocated the stern section, all in close proximity to each other. Except for about 15 feet missing from where the after part of the mid-section bolted to the stern section we had now discovered all three pieces of a midget sub that had been disassembled, rigged, and dumped in an area with numerous landing craft.
On August 28 2002, during our 3rd and final test dive before our science dive season commenced, we discovered the final resting place of the midget submarine sunk by the USS Ward on Dec 7th 1941. We had been searching for 10 years.
After finding the Ward's midget we recognized the identical construction characteristics between the Ward's midget and the 3 piece midget and asked ourselves "could this possibly be the missing 5th and final midget submarine?"
In December of 2006 we collectively made a decision to present HURL's theory to the historians. Dr Chris Kelley, HURL's chief biologist gave a presentation as part of "A Nation Remembers" symposium on the Pearl Harbor attacks. At the end of his talk entitled "Hidden History, the Discovery of the Wards Midget sub" Chris presented our theory that we might have found the 5th midget to the room full of historians. Chris was the one who located 39 possible midget sub targets during testing of a side scan system that helped lead to the discovery of the Wards midget in 2002.
In March 2009 we returned to the location of the 3 piece midget to do a project with Lone Wolf Productions and NHK. The project was to explore the possibility that these 3 sections comprise the missing Japanese midget submarine from the Dec 7th attack. A team of midget sub experts joined us and made dives to the sites. The most valued member of this team was retired Admiral Kazuo Ueda, a midget submarine veteran. Admiral Ueda confirmed the figure-eight torpedo guard configuration was only used on the 5 Pearl Harbor midget submarines, thus confirming our theory. All 5 hulls with the figure-8 torpedo guard were now accounted for. HURL had discovered the 5th and final midget submarine.
The big question now was how did it get disassembled and dumped at sea?
This is the theory we feel makes the most sense with the available information at hand. We believe this submarine was salvaged from protected waters. If it had been lost at sea in deeper water it might not have been discovered. Like the Keehi Lagoon midget it would have probably eluded detection for years. If it was visible on the reef there would have been surge damage to the hull. The hull is clean without signs of depth charge wash boarding or impact damage that would have been sustained from wave action and the reef. It is also doubtful the Navy or a private contractor would risk a crane barge to recover the submarine in an area subject to the effects of onshore swells. Such an operation would have been very visible as well and there is no record so far of the salvage of this submarine. The closest protected waters would be Pearl Harbor.
We believe this submarine fired its torpedoes at the heavy cruiser USS St Louis as the ship was trying to make its way out to sea from Pearl Harbor. There are multiple sources verifying the fact that 2 torpedoes were seen coming towards the St Louis and detonated on the reef. We do not think these torpedoes could have come from one of the fleet submarines. The St Louis was still in the channel surrounded by reef and could not maneuver to avoid the torpedoes without going aground. The fleet subs were 343ft long and would have been nearly on the reef to have made that shot. Admiral Ueda confirmed that the fleet subs ran away and were nowhere near where the St Louis was when 2 torpedoes exploded close off her starboard side. If it was a fleet submarine, why would it just fire 2 torpedoes when they could fire 4?
We feel it is unlikely that any midget sub made it all the way to battleship row. First of all they were difficult to control at periscope depth. They did not have bow planes and the stern planes were very small and not very effective. Both the Ward's midget and the midget submarine rammed by the USS Monaghan were running with the conning tower exposed. The submarine sunk by the Monaghan barely made it into the harbor before it was detected and fired on by several batteries.
Some sources believe the 5th midget made it undetected all the way to battleship row and sat on the bottom and waited for the attack to begin, then surfaced amongst falling bombs and passing torpedoes, and fired two torpedoes into battleship row. We believe this theory is not only unlikely, but preposterous. First of all, for the reasons already mentioned, but also from first-hand experience conducting a dive in the submersible Star II in the 1970's off of Taiwan. A tremendous explosion occurred during one dive that rocked the Star II and felt like the aft end of the sub had blown off. We found out later that the Chinese Army had detonated an underwater demolition charge off an island that was 5 miles away. It is hard to imagine what it would have been like sitting in 30ft of water with bombs and torpedoes exploding 100yards away or less.
After firing both torpedoes at the St Louis we believe the midget sub sat on the bottom and waited. Admiral Ueda said it would have been unlikely the crews could have still been alive after being submerged all day, but we know Sakamaki and Inagaki were still alive that night and made it all the way around to Bellows Beach on the East side of Oahu.
By nightfall surviving crews would have been in the subs for about 17 hours. The crew of the 5th midget were probably exhausted, confused, and near death from asphyxiation. After attacking the St Louis and sitting on the bottom all day listening to explosions and ships overheard, they may have decided to try to surface, risking detection, but death was a certainty anyway if he did not surface and get air. The sub may have been sitting close to the entrance to the harbor. Even if the entrance nets were closed, all he would have needed to get over them was about 6ft of clearance.
The Admiral does not think these crews were trained enough to have the strategic forethought to plan to move up the West Loch, but what if the midget sub commander had no idea where he was going but chose the route where there was the least amount of activity. He would have had a good diversion if he entered when ship and shore batteries were shooting at SDB Dauntless Dive Bombers arriving from the USS Enterprise. He may have ended up in West Loch out of battery power, and having no other options, but to submerge and detonate the scuttling charge.
The submarine could have lain in the silt on the bottom of the West Loch basin undetected until May 21, 1944 when the West Loch disaster occurred. We believe the submarine was discovered by accident during the clean up after the West Loch explosion. It's our belief that a civilian salvage crew tasked with salvaging the damaged and sunken craft discovered the 80ft sub on the bottom. It had been soaking in the stagnant waters for 2.5 years and likely had no intelligence value at that point in the war. The salvors probably lifted it onto a crane barge and disassembled it at the flange joints to make the sections more manageable for disposal. We verified that the sections had been disassembled from the outside when we cleaned away the corrosion from the flange joint on the forward end of the mid-section. This revealed sheared off bolts in the flange holes.
The bow and mid sections were rigged in the same manner with a hole punched through the forward end near the flange joint and a cable rigged through the hole.
The stern section had a cable choked around the tail. The West Loch Disaster and the subsequent cleanup had been placed under a tight veil of secrecy. This would explain why there was no record of this salvage and disposal.
The mystery of the 5th midget submarine may become closer to being solved with the research and joint efforts of all involved in the NOVA/NHK documentary now being produced. From the evidence so far it is safe to assume that this is the 5th midget submarine from the Pearl Harbor attack and should be considered to be included in the protective management plan with the Ward's midget.
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