The sky was clear of enemy aircraft on the morning of Nov. 20, 1944 at Ulithi, the American anchorage and resupply base that kept the fleet moving towards victory over Tokyo in the latter part of the Pacific War. Fleet oiler USS Mississinewa (AO-59) was anchored there after another successful refueling mission for Halsey’s Third Fleet and was full of aviation fuel as it was prepared for its next assignment. Suddenly a violent explosion erupted from the ship at 5:45 a.m. and the ship began to sink. Unbeknownst to her crew and the U.S. Navy she was the victim of a kamikaze that no one saw coming because it didn’t come from the sky, it came from under the sea.
Besides the well-known use of kamikaze aircraft, the Imperial Japanese Navy employed a range of kamikazes that attacked from the sky, on and under water. One of these was the Kaiten, “Heaven Shaker,” a manned torpedo, and Mississinewa was the first victim on their inaugural sortie.
USS Mississinewa (US Navy photo pulled from Wikipedia)
The Kaiten crews were trained at Ozushima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea, a relatively short distance from the Kure Naval Arsenal and Eta Jima Naval Academy. The Ozushima Torpedo Testing Facility opened in 1939 for the testing of Japan’s new secret weapon, the Type 93 torpedo. (The name “Long Lance” was applied to it after the war)
The Type 93 was a marvel of torpedo technology for its time. It was as fast as its American counterpart, but with five times the range and almost double the warhead. Making it even more lethal, it was oxygen-fueled so left no tell-tale wake to herald its arrival, there was just the explosion of torpedo against target. The Allies did not learn of its full characteristics until after the war.
Navy officers Hiroshi Kuroki and Sekio Nishina began working on a version of this torpedo that would have a human guidance system in Sept. 1943. Initially the intent was to create a pilot-guided torpedo that the crew could escape from before detonation, which the Germans had successfully developed, but that idea was scrapped and it became a pure suicide weapon by its adoption in August 1944.
The new torpedo itself was essentially an elongated Type 93 with a cockpit compartment crammed in the center. It was slower by far than its “dumb” parent weapon, but carried an even bigger explosive charge and had the superior guidance system.
Trading one secret weapon for another, Ozushima began training the first Kaiten crews in September.
Similar to airborne kamikazes in composition, the Kaiten pilots aged from 17-28 with 21 being the most common age at death. They came from diverse backgrounds, from all pay grades and had been drawn from the ranks of the Naval Academy, engineering, torpedo, flying and even preparatory schools. Smaller than the airborne kamikaze program, they didn’t seem to need to “volun-told” any prospective pilots to join.
In all, 1,375 Kaiten were trained and 145 died as part of the program, including those lost to training accidents. 106 Kaiten were fired in anger, but it’s impossible to tell how many were successful in their missions. The only confirmed ship sunk beside the oiler was a small destroyer escort. (In addition to the 145 who died in the Kaiten, if the eight submarines lost performing Kaiten operations are also factored in, the death toll for the program is more than 900.)
This is because submarines didn’t tend to stick around to see if their launches were successful or to recover the manned torpedo if they were not. They carried two-to-six Kaiten on every sortie and after sighting a target would launch then leave. Unlike many airborne kamikazes that could turn back after taking off for various reasons, such as mechanical trouble, the Kaiten was a guaranteed one way trip. If a target was not struck the pilot had a self-destruct that he could use to end it quickly in lieu of potential capture or dying of starvation alone on the sea.
Kaitens were mounted on submarines, destroyers and a few other vessels, and went on more than 30 sorties until the last was launched a day after the cease-fire on Aug. 16, though it returned two days later.
Today Ozushima is a quiet island with a small population that can be reached only by ferry, but it still draws on its kamikaze past to bring in tourists with both the Kaiten Memorial Museum and the still-standing parts of the old base.
And to make sure visitors are suitably excited for their visit, the Tokuyama ferry terminal is practically a museum annex with large displays about the Kaiten inside and a full-sized replica Kaiten out front. Their replica was built for the movie, Deguchi no nai Umi (Sea without Exit), which is about Kaiten pilots. It is very convincing and I would not be able to tell it from the real thing. Kaiten were not the most complicated weapons, so I’d imagine mocking up a replica that does everything but swim and explode isn’t the most difficult thing to do. All the same, it got me pumped to visit the island and see where these were launched from.
Seeing that particular set of ruins on Ozushima, the torpedo testing facility, was the best part of the visit. The pier launch platform was originally built for the Type 93 torpedo testing but with modifications was used for handling manned torpedoes. Pilots were launched from here and would practice navigating around the island before returning here.
To get to the launch platform, pilots had to push their torpedoes on rail carts through a tunnel that has also been preserved. The tunnel, a pre-War construct, is very well made and this is one of the few places where you really feel like you’re walking in the footsteps of the kamikazes.
I imagined what went through the mind of a pilot walking through the tunnel, guiding along the thing he’ll eventually use to kill himself. The death was a given, at this point in the war you probably just felt like death will happen, but the only question left is whether or not it will mean something or you could make a difference. Becoming a kamikaze meant being part of a special program that gave the pilot a degree more control over his destiny in that he was specially selected for a program that launched him at a target and maintaining the “one airplane for one ship” mentality made him feel like he alone could do a lot more good for his country than as part of a ship’s crew or as part of a faceless horde in a Banzai charge.
Walk any place often enough and it just becomes mundane and that struck me going through there. How something like training to die could just become a normal, day-to-day activity a young man participated in.
The rails have been cemented over, but I could still see where they ran and there’s a gallery near the end of the tunnel with photographs and displays that tell the Kaiten and Ozushima story. All the displays here are dual Japanese and English language as are the other explanatory signage in the area, which I greatly appreciated.
The torpedo testing facility launch platform has been stripped down to a cement shell with handrails have been installed to keep visitors from falling in the water. A few tourists wandered through while some locals fished off the platform. Kamikazes aside, coming out here really showcases just how beautiful Ozushima is, from the vibrant water to the blackened volcanic stone base to its green peaks. It would have been a beautiful place to be stationed and I’m surprised it hasn’t been developed more for leisure activities.
A few minutes away are the rest of the old base, though you wouldn’t know that if you weren’t told. Where rows of warehouse-like buildings stood for constructing the torpedoes and training crews, an elementary school now stands, but pieces of the old school have been mixed in with the new. The power substation has been left intact as well as a building used to remotely detonate torpedoes. Beside it all is the tunnel that was used to store explosives.
For the healthily inclined and those who love a view, there is an observation post atop the hill, not unlike the one at the Katashima Torpedo Testing Facility in Kawatana. This one is atop what felt like 700 meters of pure 45 degree incline that was I forced to turn back before getting to the top, so as to make the ferry back to the mainland.
The Kaiten museum itself is small and similar to other kamikaze museums. It focuses on the pilots and has a collection of letters, uniforms and artifacts. Unable to read Japanese, I couldn’t feel the full impact of the letters, but the rows of pictures and just knowing what the letters were gives the place a more solemn feeling than most museums. It also has a cutaway Kaiten cockpit near the memorial wall with the pilot’s pictures. Outside are the rusted remains of a Kaiten motor and another full-scale Kaiten replica. Unlike the Tokuyama terminal replica it was not from the movie.
A very subtle but nice touch are the museum’s interior pillars between the displays, each of which has a line from a pilot’s last letter etched into it and can only be appreciated if you can read Japanese.
A video about Kaiten plays and includes an interview with a Kaiten pilot. Kaiten were a little different than kamikazes because being sent on a sortie wasn’t a guarantee that they would die, unlike almost all kamikaze flights. A sortie could go out, find no targets or at least no opportunity to fire, and come home empty handed, but with a live set of pilots who will go out again. Unfortunately nothing in the museum, including the video is in English.
Getting to Ozushima is only done via ferry from Tokuyama ferry terminal in Shunnan City. Be mindful of the ferry times because there are only so many ferries to and from the island.
If Ozushima piques your interest in manned torpedoes, there are a few more places you can visit. The four former Kaiten training centers, Ozushima, Hikari, Hirao and Oga all have some form of memorial. All except Oga, now part of Hiji, are in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Both Hikari and Hirao have Kaiten monuments. Hirao also has a Kaiten exhibit in the Atata Exchange Center. This includes another one of the replica Kaiten from Deguchi no nai Umi. Oga/Hiji, in Kyushu’s Oita Prefecture, has a shrine and a full-sized Kaiten replica as well.
On a side note, some Kaiten training was done at the Katashima Torpedo Testing Facility in Kawatana, but it was not a Kaiten base nor an actual training center. Kaiten trainees were sent to Kawatana as well, though it seems they trained on the Shinyo suicide motor boats as they didn’t have kaiten at the base. This is based on an interview with Kozo Naoji.
To see a real Kaiten in the Pacific you’d have to visit the Yushukan in Tokyo, Yamato Museum in Kure or the Bowfin Museum in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The ruins are free to explore, but museum entry is 300 yen.
Ozushima is also seen spelled “Otsushima”and “Ohzushima.” I use Ozushima because that is what the museum used.
CONTACT INFORMATION AND ADDRESS
1960 Ozushima, Shunan City 745-0057
Telephone 0834852310