Kaiten
- This article is about the suicide torpedo. For other meanings, see Kaiten (disambiguation).
| Kaiten | |
|---|---|
Kaiten manned torpedoes, stacked on top of a departing submarine |
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| Type | Manned Torpedo |
| Place of origin | Empire of Japan |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1944-1945 |
| Used by | Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Wars | World War II |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 8.3 t (9.1 short tons) |
| Length | 14.75 m (48 ft 5 in) |
| Diameter | 1 m (3 ft 3 in) |
| Crew | 1 |
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| Warhead weight | 1,550 kg (3,400 lb) |
| Detonation mechanism |
Contact, Command Detonation |
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| Engine | Type 93 Oxygen torpedo engine 550 hp (410 kW) |
| Propellant | Oxygen, diesel |
| Operational range |
78 km (42 nmi; 48 mi) |
| Speed | 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph) |
The Kaiten (Japanese: 回天, literal translation "return to the sky", regular translation "the turn toward heaven", "The Heaven Shaker" and "Change the World"[1]) was a torpedo modified as a suicide weapon, and used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II.
Early designs allowed the pilot to escape after the final acceleration toward the target, although whether this could have been done successfully is doubtful. There is no record of any pilot attempting to escape or intending to do so, and this provision was dropped from later production kaitens so that, once inside, the pilot could not let himself out. The kaiten was fitted with a control for self destruction, intended for use if an attack failed.
Contents |
[edit] Description and Service
Five models were designed, the types 1, 2, 3 and 4 based on the type 93 torpedo (36 ft 8 in (11.18 m)24 inch oxygen/kerosene), and the Type 10, based on the type 92 torpedo (21 in (530 mm) electric). Types 2, 4 and 10 were manufactured in small numbers and never used. Prototypes of the Type 3 may have been built, or it may have existed only as a concept.
Only the type 1, a one-person model with a 1,360 kg (3,000 lb) warhead, was used operationally. Almost 400 were built, more than 100 of which were sent on suicide missions. "Kaiten attacks resulted in sinking only two American vessels with the loss of 162 American lives, in comparison to 106 kaiten pilots who lost their lives, including 15 killed in training accidents. The kaiten pilots' ages ranged from 17 to 28. In addition to the kaiten pilots, more than 600 men died as eight Japanese submarines carrying kaiten were sunk."[2]
When compared with the Type 93 torpedo which was deck-launched from the surface, kaitens had the obvious advantages of having a pilot to guide the weapon, and being launched from a submerged submarine. However, they were not nearly as effective round-for-round as the highly successful type 93 torpedo on which they were based. Sources from the United States state the only sinkings achieved by kaiten attacks were the fleet oiler USS Mississinewa on 20 November 1944, and the destroyer escort USS Underhill on 24 July 1945 (some Japanese sources give much larger numbers).
The Type 2 was intended to have a crew of two, and so is often confused with the Japanese Ko-hyoteki-class midget submarines used to attack Pearl Harbor and Sydney. However, the midget submarines used in these attacks were each armed with two light torpedoes in individual tubes, and were intended to return to their mother ships after firing them. All kaitens, on the other hand, had fixed warheads and were destroyed on detonation. The quality of construction reflected this fundamental difference.
All kaitens were designed to be launched from the deck of either a surface ship or a submerged submarine. Provision was made for the crew to enter the kaiten from the submarine while submerged. Kaitens had a very limited depth capability, and when carried on a submarine deck prevented the submarine itself from diving deeper. This is one of several factors blamed for the very poor survival rate of submarines using them, eight submarines being lost for the sinking of only two enemy ships and damaging of some others. A submarine carried three to six kaitens.
[edit] Schematics
[edit] References
- ^ Hashimoto (1954). Sunk. Henry Holt and Company.
- ^ http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/museums/kaiten/
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kaiten |
- Kaiten Memorial Museum located at former kaiten base on Otsushima Island
- Kamikaze Submarine book by kaiten pilot who survived three missions due to chance incidents which necessitated the cancellation of each operation he was scheduled to be involved in
- USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park description accompanying the exhibit of a type 4 kaiten
- US Navy Historical Center account of the kaiten program, with diagrams of types 1, 2, 4 and 10
- Pictorial account of types 1 and 2 kaitens
- HNSA Web Page: IJN Kaiten
- Human torpedo 回天 Kaiten (Japanese)
- Sheftall, M.G. (2005). Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze. NAL Caliber. pp. 480pp. ISBN 0-451-21487-0.
Number9dream Kaitens figure in the second novel by David Mitchell, Number9Dream