Photo: Mikasa, among the most powerful battleships of her time, in 1905, was one of the six battleships ordered as part of the program.
Unknown – 呉市海事歴史科学館所蔵品 (Sakai City Maritime History Science Museum Collection)
日本海軍戦艦敷島型「三笠 呉にて撮影されたもの。(Japanese battleship Mikasa in Kure)
Permission details
For background information, see the explanations on Non-U.S. copyrights. Note: This tag should not be used for sound recordings.View more
- Public Domainview terms
- File:Japanese battleship Mikasa.jpg
- Created: 1905年(明治38年)2月初旬。(February 1905)
Operation Storm: 4 of 4: Japan’s Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II Paperback – March 18, 2014. by John Geoghegan (Author)
In 1941, the architects of Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor planned a bold follow-up: a potentially devastating air raid—this time against New York City and Washington, DC. The classified Japanese program required developing a squadron of top secret submarines—the Sen-toku or I-400 class—designed as underwater aircraft carriers, each equipped with three Aichi M6A1 attack bombers painted to look like U.S. aircraft. The bombers, called Seiran (which translates as “storm from a clear sky”), were tucked in a huge, water-tight hanger on the sub’s deck. The subs’ mission was to travel more than halfway around the world, surface on the U.S. coast, and launch their deadly air attack. This entire operation was unknown to U.S. intelligence. And the amazing thing is how close the Japanese came to pulling it off.
John Geoghegan’s meticulous research, including first-person accounts from the I-401 crew and the U.S. capturing party, creates a fascinating portrait of the Sen-toku‘s desperate push into Allied waters and the U.S. Navy’s dramatic pursuit, masterfully illuminating a previously forgotten story of the Pacific war.
