Researchers find 1941 Japanese mini submarine

See underwater video of the submarine (RealPlayer required)

By Jaymes Song
Associated Press

Two University of Hawai'i research submarines on routine test dives today found a Japanese midget submarine sunk an hour before the 1941 aerial attack on Pearl Harbor, researchers said.

A Japanese mini submarine sunk shortly before the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941 sits on the bottom of the ocean near the mouth of the harbor. Researchers located the sub today. Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory

The two-man sub, sunk by a U.S. Navy destroyer, was the focus of a Fall 2000 National Geographic expedition headed by the team that located the wreckage of the Titanic, but was never found.

“It’s the shot that started World War II between the Americans and the Japanese,” said John Wiltshire, associate director of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, which found the sub today at about noon.

Wiltshire said the sub’s two Japanese crew members are “most likely” still inside the sub.

Historians cite the submarine as an omen of the early morning attack missed by U.S. military intelligence.

Wiltshire said the midget sub was discovered in several hundred feet of water near the mouth of Pearl Harbor, surrounded by other discarded military debris.

Wiltshire said his crew is certain it is the midget sub that led four others into Pearl Harbor because of a bullet hole in its conning tower.

“The sub is significant historically. This was the first shot fired between the Americans and the Japanese, leading the United States into World War II,” he said. “The captain of this submarine was the first person to die. So the first casualty in the attack of Pearl Harbor was Japanese.”

The sub was discovered by the Pisces 4 and Pisces 5 on a test and training dive in an area he described as an underwater “military junkyard” where old vehicles and other debris had been discarded.

“The thing is quite difficult to find because of all the massive amounts of junk out in the area and we were simply fortunate, because we’ve run our test and training dives through here and know where a lot of the junk is,” he said.

Wiltshire said that although researchers always “kept an eye out for it,” his crews have never devoted a search for the sub.

“People have been looking for it since the day it was sunk, for 60 years,” he said.

Wiltshire said he isn’t sure who will take ownership of the sub.

“This will be discussed between the governments of the United States and Japan,” he said.

In November 2000, a team of deep-water researchers led by undersea explorer Robert Ballard spent 10 days searching for the Japanese sub, using remotely operated imaging vehicles.

Ballard is best known for finding the remains of the Titanic, Bismarck and Yorktown, along with last month’s discovery of PT-109, the torpedo boat commanded by John F. Kennedy during World War II and sunk near the Solomon Islands.

Although Ballard failed to find the midget sub, he spotted tanks, airplanes and ammunition on the sea floor featured in a May 2001 television special.

The submarines’ entry into the harbor was followed by the Sunday morning attack by Japanese planes that lasted two hours and left 21 U.S. ships heavily damaged, 323 aircraft damaged or destroyed, 2,390 people dead and 1,178 other wounded.