After 60 years in a watery Hawaiian grave, two World War II-era Japanese attack submarines have been discovered near Pearl Harbor, marine archaeologists announced today.
Specifically designed for a stealth attack on the U.S. East Coast–perhaps targeting Washington, D.C., and New York City–the “samurai subs” were fast, far-ranging, and in some cases carried folding-wing aircraft, according to Dik Daso, curator of modern military aircraft at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum.
When World War II ended in 1945, the U.S. Navy seized the Japanese fleet in the Pacific, including five samurai subs, as they’re called in the new film. The subs were later sunk, to keep the technology out of the hands of the Soviet Union.The military didn’t record where the boats had been laid to rest, thinking no one would want to know.
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