Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II (59 page)
Authors: John Geoghegan
Tags: #Non-Fiction, #History
I’m also grateful to the U.S. prize crews and their families for allowing me to interview them, including Harry Arvidson (
I-400
), Lynda Arvidson Cambron, Gordon Hiatt (
I-400
), Dave Johnson (whose father was a member of the
I-400
’s prize crew), Donald Pierson (
I-401
), Lou Reynolds (
I-14
), and Paul Wittmer (
I-401
).
Special mention should also be made of three texts that proved crucial to my understanding of the
Sen-toku
subs and their crew. The first is Lt. Cdr. Nobukiyo Nambu’s memoir,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo: Sensuikuubo I-401 Kanchou No Shuki
[
Surprise Attack on the American Fleet! Memoir of the I-401 Aircraft-Carrying Submarine by Its Captain
] (Tokyo: Fuami Shobo, 1988). Next is Tsugio Sato’s history of the
Sen-toku
force,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
[
Phantom Submarine Carrier
] (Tokyo: Kabushiki Gaisha Kojin-sha, 1989). And finally, Ens. Kazuo Takahashi’s memoir,
Shinryu Tokubetsu Kogekitai
[
Divine Dragon Special Attack Unit
] (Tokyo: Koujinsha, 2001). These three books proved immensely helpful in helping me parse fact from myth.
At the University of Hawaii’s Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL), I’d like to thank Max Cremer; operations manager
Terry Kerby, who showed me what life was like inside a deepwater submersible—I want one of those coffee cups, Terry; Rachel S. Orange; Steven L. Price; and Dr. John C. Wiltshire.
At the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, I’d like to thank Tom D. Crouch, senior curator of the Division of Aeronautics; and Robert M. McLean, Jr., and Matthew Nazzaro, whose loving and historically accurate restoration of the world’s only
Seiran
is a feast for the eyes. Bob once told me, “Translating English and Japanese aeronautical terms is fraught with error, and requires a Zen-like comparative analysis of what is actually being said.” My sentiments exactly. Frank McNally and Brian Mullen, also at the Smithsonian, graciously provided me access to the collection.
At the USS
Pampanito
(SS 383) in San Francisco, a beautifully restored Balao-class submarine, I’d like to thank Neil Chaitin, Diane Cooper, Bill Parker (who answered my numerous questions about Balao-class submarines without complaint), and Aaron Washington.
The U.S. military provided vital assistance to my research for this book. I am particularly grateful to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration; the National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records Division, St. Louis; and the National Archives, both in Washington, D.C., and in College Park, Maryland.
I enjoyed the full cooperation and support of the U.S. Navy. The Naval History and Heritage Command; the Naval Historical Center; and the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., were also wonderful resources, but it’s the people who make the difference, including Lt. Cdr. Suzanna Brugler, director at the Navy Office of Information in New York City; Navy Reserve Lt. Jonathan Groveman, public affairs specialist in Washington, D.C.; Wendy S. Gulley, archivist at the Submarine Force Museum, Naval Submarine Base, New London; Chris Zendan, public affairs officer, Naval Submarine Base, New London; William Kenny at the Submarine Learning Center Public Affairs Office; Jenny Erickson, public affairs and media relations specialist at the U.S. Naval Academy; Dorothea V. Abbott, librarian of special collections and archives at the U.S.
Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library in Annapolis; James W. Cheevers, associate director and senior curator at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis; Skid Heyworth at the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association; J. Lloyd Abbot, Jr., president of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Class of 1939 Alumni Association; Katie Suich, public affairs specialist at the Navy Personnel Command Communications Office; and Cdr. Patrick W. McNally, public affairs officer for the Submarine Force in Norfolk, Virginia.
Many library archives played a crucial role in helping me with my research. In particular I would like to thank Erin Kimber, information librarian, and Jill Durney, library manager, at the Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; Yvonne Hudgens at the Greenwood County Library, South Carolina; the Santa Barbara Public Library in Santa Barbara, California; and the Marin and San Mateo County public library systems in California. I’d also like to thank Janis Jorgensen, manager of the Heritage Collection, and Carol Parkinson, editorial production assistant, at the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis.
My agent, Jeff Kleinman at Folio Literary Management, read and responded to my book proposal within six hours of receiving it, even though he didn’t know me from Adam. That’s the longest Jeff’s ever taken to respond to something I’ve sent him. Jeff, you are my hero.
I’d also like to thank my editor at Crown, Sean Desmond, whose sharp eye, discerning red pencil, and unquestionable good taste were crucial to shaping this book. I cooed like a baby in the hands of this professional.
The staff at Crown who saw my book through to completion were also terrific, including editorial assistant Annie Chagnot, designer Lauren Dong, assistant editor Stephanie Knapp, production editor Christine Tanigawa, and production manager Norman Watkins. It goes without saying that I owe a deep personal thanks to Crown’s publisher, Molly Stern. God bless the lady who signs the checks.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to the SILOE Research Institute, whose mission to study and report on unusual technologies that
fail to find a wider market application despite their innovative nature continues to inspire and nourish me today.
My apologies in advance to anyone I’ve inadvertently forgotten. As you might expect, any errors found in this book are my responsibility alone.
OTES
It may seem odd that a topic with a paucity of sources has so many footnotes, but the contradictory nature of some personal accounts, combined with widespread document destruction at the end of the war, necessitates an understanding of where specific quotes, data, and tabular records of movements for the
Sen-toku
squadron come from. Therefore, in the interest of accurately recounting this highly unusual story, I have included as many sources I thought appropriate.
1.
Tsugio Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
[
Phantom Submarine Carrier
] (Tokyo: Kabushiki Gaisha Kojin-sha, 1989), p. 130.
1.
USS
Segundo
(SS 398), Fifth War Patrol Report, August 15, 1945, 1305,
http://www.segundo398.org/patrol_reports/patrol5.pdf
.
2.
Victor S. Horgan, interview by author.
3.
Ibid.
4.
John E. Balson, interview by author.
5.
Ibid.
6.
Segundo
, Fifth Patrol Report, August 19, 1945, 2313–25.
7.
Richard Binkley, interview by author.
8.
Victor S. Horgan, interview by author.
9.
Ibid.
10.
Ibid.
11.
Ibid
12.
Ibid.
13.
John E. Balson, interview by author.
14.
Clay Blair, Jr.,
Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War against Japan
(Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1975), p. 870.
15.
L. Rodney Johnson, interview by author.
16.
Victor S. Horgan, interview by author.
17.
Ibid.
18.
L. Rodney Johnson, interview by author.
19.
Segundo
, Fifth Patrol Report, August 28, 1945, 2353.
20.
John E. Balson, interview by author; John E. Balson, interview on KXA radio, Seattle, October 27, 1945.
21.
Ibid.
22.
USS
Segundo
(SS 398), Fifth War Patrol Report, August 29, 1945, 0007,
http://www.segundo398.org/patrol_reports/patrol5.pdf
.
23.
Leitch, “Chase, Capture, and Boarding.”
24.
L. Rodney Johnson, interview by author.
25.
Victor S. Horgan, interview by author.
26.
L. Rodney Johnson, interview by author.
27.
Victor S. Horgan, interview by author.
28.
Ibid.
29.
Ibid.
30.
Ibid.
31.
Segundo
, Fifth War Patrol Report, August 29, 1945, 0008.
32.
John E. Balson, interview by author; John E. Balson, interview by KXA radio.
33.
Ibid.
34.
L. Rodney Johnson, interview by author; Victor S. Horgan, interview by author.
35.
L. Rodney Johnson, interview by author.
36.
John E. Balson, interview by author.
37.
Carlo M. Carlucci, interview by author.
38.
Ibid.
39.
Segundo
, Fifth War Patrol Report, August 29, 1945, 0417.
40.
Ibid., 0419.
41.
Norman Polmar and Dorr B. Carpenter,
Submarines of the Imperial japanese Navy, 1904–1945
(London: Conway Maritime Press, 1986), p. 111.
42.
Carl Boyd and Akihiko Yoshida,
The Japanese Submarine Force and World War II
(Shrewsbury, U.K.: Airlife, 1996), p. 37.
43.
Ibid.
44.
John E. Balson, interview by author; Victor S. Horgan, interview by author.
45.
Victor S. Horgan, interview by author.
46.
Atsushi Asamura, “
I-401
Sensuikan to Seiran to Watashi [The
I-401
Submarine, Seiran and Me],”
Maru
Special,
Japanese Naval Vessels
, no. 13, 1977, pp. 42–43.
I-401
1.
Norman Polmar and Dorr B. Carpenter,
Submarines of the Imperial japanese Navy, 1904–1945
(London: Conway Maritime Press, 1986), p. 111.
2.
Zenji Orita with Joseph D. Harrington,
I-Boat Captain: How Japan’s Submarines Almost Defeated the US Navy in the Pacific!
(Canoga Park, Calif.:
Major Books, 1976), p. 297. Lt. Tsugio Yata says the sub could dive in as little as 44 seconds. See Tsugio Yata, “SubRon 1 … Aims for U.S. Fleet at Ulithi and Panama Canal,”
I-401 History, I-401
Submarine Society, Japan. Nevertheless, 56 seconds seems a more likely time.
3.
Nobukiyo Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo: Sensuikuubo I-401 Kanchou No Shuki
[
Surprise Attack on the American Fleet! Memoir of the I-401 Aircraft-Carrying Submarine by Its Captain
] (Tokyo: Fuami Shobo, 1988), p. 187; Lt. Atsushi Asamura, interview,
Rekishi Gunzon
, no. 85, October 10, 2007, Gakken, pp. 154–59.
4.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, pp. 226–27.
5.
Atsushi Asamura, interview by author; Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, pp. 223–24; Tsugio Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
[
Phantom Submarine Carrier
] (Tokyo: Kabushiki Gaisha Kojin-sha, 1989), p. 227.
6.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 224.
7.
Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 227.
8.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 227.
9.
Ibid.
10.
Ibid.; Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 228.
11.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 228; Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 228.
12.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 227.
13.
Ibid.
14.
Ibid., p. 231.
15.
Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 232.
16.
Orita and Harrington,
I-Boat Captain
, p. 310.
17.
Ibid.
18.
Ibid.
19.
Nobutaka Nambu, interview by author.
20.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 236.
21.
Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, pp. 239, 241.
22.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 238.
1.
Hiroyuki Agawa,
The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy
(Kodansha International, 2000), p. 233.
2.
Ibid., pp. 50, 73.
3.
Ibid., p. 21.
4.
Ibid., pp. 32, 74.
5.
Tsugio Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
[
Phantom Submarine Carrier
] (Tokyo: Kabushiki Gaisha Kojin-sha, 1989), pp. 39–41.
6.
Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, p. 15.
7.
Ibid., p. 36.
8.
Ibid., pp. 63, 90.
9.
Ibid., p. 57.
10.
Ibid., pp. 8, 81.
11.
Ibid., p. 217.
12.
Ibid., pp. 180–81.
13.
Ibid., pp. 1–2.
14.
Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, p. 2.
15.
Ibid., p. 8.
16.
Ibid., p. 189.
17.
Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 40.
18.
M. G. Sheftall,
Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze
(New York: NAL Caliber, 2006), p. 362. Yamamoto was also concerned about Japan’s unique vulnerability. See Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, p. 127.
19.
Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, p. 127; Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 44.
20.
Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 41.
21.
Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, p. 91; Nobukiyo Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo: Sensuikuubo I-401 Kanchou No Shuki
[
Surprise Attack on the American Fleet! Memoir of the I-401 Aircraft-Carrying Submarine by Its Captain
] (Tokyo: Fuami Shobo, 1988), p. 58.
22.
Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 46.
23.
Ibid.
24.
Agawa,
Reluctant Admiral
, p. 194, 196; Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 46.
25.
Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, pp. 48–49.
26.
Ibid.
27.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 187.
28.
Thomas S. Momiyama, “All and Nothing,”
Air & Space
, Smithsonian, October–November 2001, p. 28.
29.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 192; U.S. Naval Technical Mission to Japan,
Reports of the U.S. Naval Technical Mission to Japan
, Series S:
Ship and Related Targets
, Index no. S-01-1:
Characteristics of Japanese Naval Vessels
, Article I:
Submarines
(Washington, D.C.: Operational Archives, U.S. Navy History Division, 1946), p. 8.
30.
Robert C. Mikesh,
Aichi M6A1 Seiran: Japan’s Submarine Launched Panama Canal Bomber
(Boylston, Mass.: Monogram Aviation Publications, 1975), p. 12.
31.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 192.
32.
John D. Alden,
The Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy: A Design and Construction History
(Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1979), p. 3:101.
33.
Ibid.
34.
Ibid.
35.
Ibid., p. 190.
36.
Alden,
Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy
, p. 3:101.
37.
Norman Polmar and Dorr B. Carpenter,
Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1904–1945
(London: Conway Maritime Press, 1986), p. 111.
38.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 186.
39.
Carl Boyd and Akihiko Yoshida,
The Japanese Submarine Force and World War II
(Shrewsbury, U.K.: Airlife, 1996), pp. 28–29.
40.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 179.
41.
Ibid., p. 167; Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 177.
42.
Sato,
Maboroshi no Sensui Kubo
, p. 52.
43.
Nambu,
Beikidoukantai wo Kishuseyo
, p. 179.
44.
Ibid., p. 180.
45.
Ibid., p. 179.
