California shipyard workers inspect a captured two-man Japanese Type A Kō-hyōteki-class midget subma
California shipyard workers inspect a captured two-man Japanese Type A Kō-hyōteki-class midget submarine at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The submarine was dispatched into Pearl Harbor with five other Japanese midget submarines on 7 December 1941 during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. However, its gyrocompass malfunctioned, preventing its pilot Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki and crewman Kyoshi Inagaki from completing its attack mission. The submarine then wandered directionless into the waters surrounding Oahu, then went aground at Waimanalo, on the east coast of the island. Ignagaki died in the surf while trying to get to shore and Ensign Sakamaki was taken as the first Japanese POW by the United States during the Pacific War. Humiliated to be taken alive, Sakamaki demanded to be allowed to commit ritual suicide in Oahu prison; American guards refused. After the war, he was repatriated to Japan and committed himself to pacifism. Mare Island, Vallejo, California, United States. September 1942. -- source link
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