Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II (47 page)

Ariizumi accompanied the launch of each
Seiran
with a lone cry of
“Banzai!”
It only added to the tragic effect.
^§
58
But something strange happened that night. As the third
Seiran
hurtled down the launch ramp, the plane seemed to resist leaving. A rooster tail of sparks followed in her wake, and after crashing into the ocean, she floated so close to the
I-401
that Kondo felt she was trying to return home.
⁵⁹
It was a sentimental notion, but it didn’t last. After struggling to remain afloat, the final
Seiran
dipped beneath the waves. The storm that had once been intended for a clear sky vanished into the night.

The
I-400
also disposed of its weapons. Surfacing shortly after sunset, Kusaka’s crew began throwing sacks of documents overboard. Among them were Takahashi’s personal flight records. It pained him to throw them away. But since they tied him to the
I-37
’s massacre of Allied prisoners, he had no choice.
⁶⁰

Next came the
Seiran
. A brief ceremony was held before the planes were launched. The aircrews lined up on the machine gun deck, tears running down their cheeks, before they punched holes in their planes’ wings and fuselage.
⁶¹
Next the
I-400
’s crane picked up the planes, one by one, and dropped them into the ocean.
^‖
Even in darkness, the
Seiran
’s silver-painted body could be seen sinking slowly out of sight.

It hurt to see such good aircraft destroyed. Still, Takahashi knew that disguising the planes as American would be seen as a violation of international law. But the
I-400
was not home free yet. Amid all the hurried activity, a crewman fell overboard and drowned. It was shocking to lose someone so close to Japan, especially now that the war was over. The accident didn’t stop weapons disposal though.
⁶²
There was no time for delay.

Seiran
ordnance came next. One by one the 1,760-pound bombs were plucked off the deck and dropped into the sea.
⁶³
Okui, the cook, was sad to see the weapons go,
⁶⁴
but not as sad as the sub’s chief torpedo officer over what happened next. After launching the
I-400
’s bow torpedoes, Kusaka watched in dismay as one by one they leaped out of the water, turned in a half circle, and began heading back toward the boat.
⁶⁵
It took only one malfunctioning torpedo to sink a submarine; several was unprecedented. Clearly, the gyros had been set incorrectly.

Incredible as it may seem, after surviving an Allied air raid, underwater mines, an electrical fire, and multiple navy task forces, the hunter was once again the hunted. Only this time, the
I-400
wasn’t hunted by the enemy—she was hunting herself.

C
ARLO
C
ARLUCCI WAS ASLEEP WHEN NEWS OF THE
J
APANESE
surrender first reached the
Segundo
. He’d finished his watch, had a bite to eat, and was sacked out in the crew’s quarters when somebody turned the lights on.

“What’s up?” he asked drowsily.

“War’s over!” someone shouted.

Carlucci couldn’t have been more surprised.

The
Segundo
was en route to the Kuril Islands when Japan accepted peace terms. It was 2:07 the afternoon of August 15 when the news came by radio. Forty-three minutes later it was followed by ComSubPac orders to cease fire.
¹

As late as July 1945, U.S. submariners were repeating the hopeful slogan “The Golden Gate in ’48,” so it’s clear they thought fighting would last at least a little while longer.
²
But the absence of enemy ships was one indication the war was near its end.
³
The
Segundo
had seen nothing since leaving Midway. Still, as Captain Johnson approached their designated patrol area, he resolved to stay on guard. The Japanese might have accepted a cease-fire, but he knew how determined they could be. They’d have to be careful.

The Kurils are a long chain of islands extending in an arc northeast from Hokkaido to the Russian peninsula of Sredinny Khrebet. Long contested, the islands were an uneasy mix of both populations. Russia had begun invading the chain three days after the cease-fire had been declared. The Kurils may have been economically insignificant, but they had strategic value, since they could be used to launch an attack against Japan.

The
Segundo
patrolled the area for seven days. From what
Johnson could tell, the Japanese were sitting out the Russian land grab. Given the animosity between the two countries, it must have hurt. Nevertheless, Johnson’s orders were to observe, not to intervene.

On August 19 the
Segundo
approached close enough to photograph one of the islands.
⁴
Seeing no activity, Johnson withdrew. That same day he stopped a Japanese fishing trawler. Deciding she wasn’t a threat, he let her go. It was a waste to interdict fishermen,
⁵
and now that a cease-fire had been declared, he had no reason to sink one. In fact, Johnson became so confident, the
Segundo
remained surfaced by day, diving only when torpedo maintenance was necessary.

The
Segundo
wasn’t alone on her patrol. The USS
Razorback
was also in the area. The subs exchanged recognition signals and small talk, killing time until something more interesting came their way. Then finally on August 24, Johnson was ordered south to Tokyo Bay.
⁶

The
Segundo
was told to mop up any remnants of the Imperial Japanese Navy that were encountered along the way.
⁷
There had been enough isolated attacks since the cease-fire to warrant concern. The official surrender ceremony had even been pushed back a few days to give the Japanese military time to persuade reluctant factions to lay down arms. Any more violations and the cease-fire might be jeopardized.

Johnson knew enough to maintain a sharp lookout, but he probably didn’t expect any strays.
⁸
Japanese warships weren’t anticipated this far north, and if he did see anything, it was likely to be a small surface vessel, since most capital ships had been sunk.

But not all Japanese warships had been destroyed. The world’s largest, most secret submarine was returning home, determined that nothing should get in her way. What Johnson didn’t realize was that the
Segundo
stood right in her path.

T
HE
I-401
WAS
considerably lighter after jettisoning her weapons. She now rode higher in the water than at any time since training. Her increased buoyancy also meant she traveled faster, a condition
Nambu exploited in his race to get home. For the last two days, the
I-401
had been making her way up Japan’s eastern seaboard. They’d managed to avoid the enemy thus far. But one dark night, when visibility was poor, they had a bad scare.

They were still south of Tokyo when one of the lookouts spotted a shadow in the distance. There was little chance of it being a Japanese ship given all the enemy activity, so Nambu submerged, hoping to escape detection. As the
I-401
’s crew sat motionless, the sound of a U.S. Navy task force roared overhead. It would have been an excellent opportunity to attack if Nambu hadn’t already disposed of their weapons. When the propellers faded, Nambu resurfaced. He could still see the huge black shadows heading toward Japan.
⁹
Ironically, it was the same direction he was heading in, only he wasn’t a conqueror as they were—he was a fugitive. The difference was incalculable.

Avoiding capture was only one of Nambu’s problems. The other was Ariizumi’s increasingly erratic behavior. Just as the
Segundo
’s crew was watching Captain Johnson for signs of trigger happiness, Nambu watched Ariizumi for signs of trouble. Nambu no longer feared being killed in battle, and he was well aware that his commander had volunteered them for suicide. Since then, however, Ariizumi’s strange behavior had made him feel ill at ease.

Nambu’s greatest fear was that the command structure was breaking down. The
Seiran
pilots had lapsed into a kind of despondency,
¹⁰
and the rest of the crew was equally depressed. If morale collapsed, they could be in danger. It took only one mistake for a fatal accident to sink a submarine. Nambu had to find a way to keep that from happening.

Ariizumi’s behavior wasn’t helping matters. It was shocking to see him look so poorly. The normally stout squadron commander seemed to have shrunk to half his normal size, and his clean-shaven face only emphasized the change. Even some of the
I-401
’s officers didn’t recognize him. After entering the wardroom, the
I-401
’s sonar operator thought, “Who’s that sitting there?” Then he realized, “It’s the boss!”
¹¹

It must have been devastating for Ariizumi to see his world collapse
around him. He’d single-mindedly served two things in his life: the emperor and the Imperial Japanese Navy. Now both had ordered him to surrender. To make matters worse, he was returning home not only in defeat but as a war criminal. No wonder death was an appealing solution.

Ariizumi’s travails were far from over. As they neared Japan, he’d felt safe enough to report the
I-401
’s location. However, the Imperial Defense Command had forwarded the information to the U.S. Navy as part of the armistice agreement.
¹²
It was the ultimate betrayal by the very system Ariizumi had pledged to support. Fortunately, Ariizumi had no way of knowing this—otherwise he might have taken precipitate action. In the meantime, he struggled to live within a code that fate had conspired to destroy. The truth must have been enough to drive him crazy.

B
Y THE EVENING
of August 28, the
I-401
was less than 200 miles off the coast of Japan.
¹³
In ten hours they would reach the Sanriku coast, their final destination.
¹⁴
As it was, they were passing Kinkasan, a mountainous island northeast of Tokyo. Bando fantasized about evacuating the sub.
¹⁵
In the ancient past, gold had been discovered nearby, and good fortune came to those who visited the local shrine. But the
I-401
continued its journey.

In addition to raising the black surrender flag, Nambu had also angled the deck guns downward to indicate they weren’t hostile. The
I-401
may have appeared chastened, but neither Nambu nor Ariizumi was willing to hand their sub to the enemy just yet.
¹⁶
It was miraculous that Nambu had gotten this far without being apprehended. In a sea brimming with enemy ships, it was virtually impossible to evade capture. Now, with his objective only ten hours away, Nambu imagined he could safely return his men to Japan. If luck would only hold.

“Something black, fifteen degrees to starboard!” a lookout shouted. “Movement unknown!”

It was near midnight when a silhouette unmistakably formed into a U.S. submarine. Radar Officer Natsume confirmed he had a
ship on his screen.
We can’t dive to escape
, Nambu thought,
they’ll see it as an act of aggression
. The last thing he wanted, now that the war was over, was to lose his crew in a meaningless action. But he didn’t want to be captured, either. And so in what amounted to an act of wishful thinking, Nambu decided upon swift withdrawal.
¹⁷

Ordering a change in course, he felt the sub veer hard to port and accelerate to flank speed. As he watched the enemy fall away 90 degrees to starboard, he prayed they’d escaped without being discovered.
¹⁸
Unfortunately for the crew of the
I-401
, Nambu’s luck had finally run out.

T
HE SUB ROCKED GENTLY ON THE SURFACE AS DAWN SPREAD
across the Pacific. The sea was calm, the day gray and hazy.
¹
As Nambu watched the American sub less than 500 yards off his starboard side,
²
he didn’t need binoculars to see that her torpedo tubes were pointed directly at him.

The confrontation had a rallying effect on the commander. Restored to his intransigent self, Ariizumi stood beside the
I-401
’s captain staring grimly at the Americans. Nambu requested an update on port engine repairs. Informed it would take a while longer, he reviewed his options. As best as he could determine, he had three—all of them bad. They could fight, they could run, or they could surrender.

Yata, the chief gunnery officer, wanted to ram the American submarine.
³
Nambu dismissed the idea, since they’d never close the distance before being torpedoed. In fact, attacking the sub was impossible. They’d disposed of all their weapons two days earlier. The Americans didn’t know this, of course, which meant Nambu could leverage their ignorance. But he wasn’t ready for a banzai charge, at least not yet, which left two other options: running or surrendering. Both were unappealing.