News-Info-Alerts

Re: 61 Years Later, Sub Found

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: August 29, 2002

"  Researchers find 1941 Japanese mini submarine at Pearl Harbour

A Japanese midget submarine sunk nearly two hours before the aerial attack on Pearl Harbour has been found.

The two-man sub was found by two University of Hawaii research submarines. It was sunk by a US Navy battleship.

The researchers are certain it is the midget sub that led four others into Pearl Harbour because of a bullet hole in its conning tower.

John Wiltshire, of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, said: "The sub's significance historically is this was the first shot fired between the Americans and the Japanese.

The submarine is believed to contain the remains of its two Japanese crew members.

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

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

Copyright © 2002 Ananova Ltd "

" Researchers find 1941 Japanese mini submarine at Pearl Harbor

HONOLULU (AP) - Researchers said today they found a Japanese midget submarine sunk more than an hour before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Two-man submarine was discovered a few miles from Pearl Harbor by research craft making test dives, said John Wiltshire, associate director of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, which found the submarine under about 1,200 feet of water.

The sub was sunk by a Navy destroyer on Dec. 7, 1941.

``It's the shot that started World War II between the Americans and the Japanese,'' Wiltshire said.

The sub is one of five that attempted to attack Pearl Harbor. Three have been previously accounted for; one is still missing.

Wiltshire said the crew is certain that this sub is the one sunk by the destroyer USS Ward because of a bullet hole in the conning tower and because it still has both torpedoes. The sub still missing had fired both of its weapons.

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.

The Japanese sub was discovered by two University of Hawaii research submersibles on a test and training dive in an area Wiltshire described as an underwater military junkyard.

``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,'' Wiltshire said.

The submarine was the focus of a National Geographic expedition in 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 the recent discovery of PT-109, the torpedo boat commanded by John F. Kennedy during World War II and sunk near the Solomon Islands."