An overview of "Kaiten" a human piloted torpedo More War Movie Content: / johnnyjohnsonesq Request a review: johnnyjohnsonreviews@gmail.com Movies/Games featured: Below the Sea 2006 Eternal Zero 2013 #ww2 #submarine
goes to show that if management of one project says "it cant be done"(diver escaping the mini torpedo), there are always bright heads from another management team that make it happen...
Saw a Kaiten when I visited Pearl Harbor. Thing is absolutely menacing and bigger then one would think. The thought of climbing in one and never leaving is horrible.
I think the best write up I ever heard about Japanese suicicde tactics was from an episode of 'War at Sea'. "It was a battle between men fighting to live, and men fighting to die."
@@terminallydrunk1900 both sides were fighting for their country but Americans wanted to live, the Japanese were more than happy to die an honourable death
And old war veteran from Osaka I met a little over a decade ago said this to me. First of all, I only met him because I was volunteering as a high schooler to help out the homeless in Osaka. He was living at the bottom of a power line/signal tower. Can’t remember that part. He was well into his 90s at that point. He said that Japan made a grave mistake when designing the late war weapons as it “made a human life a component” Or “人間の命を部品にした”in Japanese. That like has stuck with me for a long damn time now. When a country only sees their men as a measly part of a machine, not worth more than the lever he pulls, or the aluminum bolts that hold together the craft he pilots, they will lose. And they should. I love my country. But I cannot look back on its empire days and be filled with pride. Yeah, japan was strong. But it didn’t value the lives of those they said they “liberated” nor the lives of the brave men who fought for the emperor. Bushido is very beautiful and important in my eyes. When the men whom command others forget the ways of being honorable then they will, in very blunt terms, fucking die in combat 🤣 One of the few generals that I truly respect from the imperial Japanese days are Mr Nogizaka and Mr Kuribayashi. Mr Isoroku also. The Kanto Amry can suck a massive dick (to those whom don’t know, the Kānto gūn, 関東軍 are the maniacs whom ransacked nanjing and raped and pillaged, the same as the Soviets did in Manchuria during the final days of the war)
It is kinda ironic to think about that Japanese went wild with suicide tactics in various method while the Americans were developing and using the first ever UCAV drone against Japanese in Pacific to avoid human casualties.
I can't think of anything more abjectly terrifyingly than climbing into a tiny metal tube that you can't escape from and knowing it's the last place you'll ever see.
They have one featured at the Yamato Museum in Kure, Japan. It even has a personal voice-recorded message of a pilot bidding his farewell to his mother and why he has chosen to fulfil his deathly duty.
Have a happy safe Christmas everyone. Taking the next week off for the holidays. If you are looking for more content don't forget I have a second channel: ru-vid.com/show-UCXdv3sbzxb1K1Qvq4WvwKcg
My great grandpa during soviet japanese war became a witness of an event that always would bring him to tears when retelling it. He was serving as a sailor on a soviet ship in East sea and during his daily routine he saw 2 small japanese boats coming out of the cliffs. Fire was opened almost immediately but they were coming at a such pace that they just dodge bullets by going left and right. In the end both of them rammed and exploded against one of the soviet ships. It sunk like a ton of bricks and many people died that day. It is one thing to die from the hands of equally strong opponent but loosing hundreds of men to just a handful of japanese kamikazes hits different, you may never know what fate awaits you just around a corner.
@@oddballsok Warship "Smeliy" (Смелый), his name was Mamonov Stepan Savelyevich. He was serving from 1941 up to 1945 when Soviet Japanese war started. Exact month and day of the event that occured is unknown unfortunetely, and i can't ask him since he passed away long time ago.
@@antonandreyevichstepanov4131 I don't mean to doubt your story or anything, but the only Smeliy/Smely I could find was a Storozhevoy class destroyer that was mined and scuttled in the Irbe Strait, off the Gulf of Riga. Other than that, a cursory search through records of Japanese suicide motorboats, known as "Shinyo", haven't produced any results other than attacks on subchasers, landing craft, troopships, and destroyers belonging to the U.S. Navy. If the incident in question happened, I wouldn't be surprised if the Kremlin decided to cover it up, or the officers in charge concealed it from higher-ups to avoid punishment, or any one of a number of factors. I don't doubt your great-grandfather saw something happen, but he may have misremembered it or embellished it. Aging does that, even to the best of us. It also doesn't help the fact that practice was very common during the Great Patriotic War, you could have any number of conflicting accounts among men who served in the same unit, or complete fabrications courtesy of Pravda. Your great-grandfather could very likely have seen a Shinyo attack, only for them to be sunk before they could complete their run while out of his sight, and then Japanese artillery fire striking one of the Soviet ships and causing significant damage some time later. I wouldn't even be surprised if someone painted "Smeliy" onto a ship since it means 'Valiant' once translated. That's a very fitting name for a ship, one that Party members would likely insist on being reused just for the patriotic value of it. I've seen photographs of Soviet tanks with slogans, patriotic exclamations, and personal names on them, so a sailor doing it to their ship makes some sense.
@@nickgraff9413 I appreciate your effort in research, i myself didn't dig deep enough into my family past (kinda shameful tbh). Probably should find more info on his past. The fact that the story i told is a retelling of the story doesnt help it either, my uncle told me about it and he heard from it my great grandpa. Thank you for your reply i really appericate it.
@@nickgraff9413 Googled some info just now, could only find 1 destroyer named "Smeliy" but it was sanked in the first Russo-Japanese war, way before the service of my great grandpa. I think he might heard the story of it and later in life just incorporated it into his memmory due to his age or trauma. Still going to dig dipper if i gonna have an opportunity. Edit: Found a real name of the ship he was serving on it was named "Reshitelniy" and not "Smeliy". My mom memorized a wrong name for quite a while.
Interesting. I read a book by one of the surviving kaiten drivers way back in the 70s. The vid filled in a lot of details, especially about how they looked inside.
@@Chris-mt4yq Unfortunately I lost a lot of my books in the last move. It was printed in the late 70s, or early 80s but thats about all I recollect. Try googling it.
Thanks for providing insight on this type of suicide sub. It would be cool if you did a video on a similar airborne version of this called the “Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka”👍
I heard the program failed because they used Soviet tanks for training and as those were diesel powered they sounded and smelled different from the allied tanks which at that time had gasoline engines. So the dogs would not run under the allied tanks but instead they would target soviet ones.
The correct translation for Kaiten should be "Turn the Tide" (Of the war), "回" means turn somethings back to where it should be, and "天" means a situation or something, at that point of war it means bad situation.
Best thing in your videos that I get knowledge about movies - mostly non-US warmovies - what I have never heard about and anyway wouldn't come across. Thank you Johnny!
Seeing those clips of the pilots inside the subs is genuinely stomach turning, I'm not super claustrophobic, but God that looks nightmarish and it's hard to imagine just having to be in one of those for the rest of your life, even if you die in a few hours It definitely gives off iron lung vibes
The old training school is open as a museum/memorial (including those who died in training). The Kaiten story always reminds me of CSS Hunley (a desperation weapon more deadly to its users). On a slightly lighter side. "Kaiten" (Same first character, different second) is also the Japanese term for a "conveyor belt Sushi" set up (kaiten zushi). Considering how long some plates go around there, explosive reactions might not be out of place.
The meaning of the suicide torpedo kaiten(回天) is "radically change the state of the world" or "recover from an inferior position" , Kaiten(回転)zushi is "rotation" or "turning" .
Except the Hunley was never intended as a suicide torpedo. It was meant to keep floating/going on other missions but something happened which would likely be more than an accident
@@Cody_L._Brock They kept trying to use it after losing multiple crews AND the designer. I certainly wouldn't feel terribly confident of coming back from an operational mission (and by the time they used it the attack profile WAS suicidal, but they didn't know it yet). The point is, things were desperate enough that massively dangerous systems were tried in the HOPE that they'd be useful. All those Kaiten pilots dead on training or missions sank twice as many ships as Hunley (two versus one). That's a lot of brave young men for not much return in either case..
Kamikaze attacks were very...interesting. I know air attacks were a lot more successful but that has to do with technical percentages (A plane has to fly through CAP, AA cover, attack, and back out through all of that where as a kamikaze only has to do one and the attack can be relatively inaccurate.) and I know that there were SEVERAL designs in use (The Ohka comes to mind only because my father is a history teacher and once incorrectly called it by it's American nickname of The Baka Bomb which means idiot bomb). Perhaps my favorite scene with a Kaiten is actually USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage where they discuss this new enemy wonder weapon, and one is used, only for the pilot to miss.
Exactly, I too read about this Mission, it's (tragically) ironical that the only success with this Mission was achieved with conventional means, showing how fooly and idiotical was this system
I’m surprised by the existence of the Kaiten. The Imperial Japanese Navy started out WW2 with the best torpedo in the world. The type 93, if I remember correctly, used a cylinder of pure oxygen instead of compressed air for its engine, and got excellent speed AND range, making it a literal SuperWeapon against the allies. The only drawback was that later in the war, the US learned that due to the cylinder of pure oxygen, the store of torpedos on destroyers, for example were horribly flammable, and even a minor hit could blow up a Japanese ship. On the other hand, the US had the Mark 14, which was SO bad that the submarine commanders wanted to shoot them at the US Navy Bureau of Ordinance. Unfortunately, there was only about a 1% chance if them exploding. 🫢 Johnny, the Mark 14 would make an excellent video, as would the Type 93. 😛🐶 One more suggestion. The US Navy, a few months before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, dropped thousands of mines on Japanese harbors. They say that this was what ended WW2, not the Atomic Bombs.
@@GRHrivnak Yes! I read that too. 🐶 Most people are unaware that torpedos actually use an air breathing, gasoline engine for propulsion. There’s a fuel supply, and a large supply of compressed air so that the engine works. 🤓
What ended WW2 was soviet declaration of war on Japan, nothing to do with any atomic bombings Japanese was always terrified of soviets after hopeless disparity in ground strength they saw during battle of Khalkhin gol, enough for them to sign non aggression pact on them They were so afraid of soviets that they refused to attack them even when soviets sent their Siberian army to defend Moscow, leaving far east pretty much undefended After soviet broke the NAP, was when Japanese realized it was game over
@@user-up3dd1vw6b the japanese only cared if they were situated across the mainland in korea or china, the japanese on the mainland could not care any less about the soviets and they were the ones that held most of the real power on deciding the course of japan because its literally the mainland overall, constant naval defeats, starvation, lack of supplies and a growingly discontent populace (although not extreme) contributed to japans surrender as much as the atomic bombings did. if you think ONE single cause is the prime factor in the reason for japans surrender you have NO idea of who the japanese really are
I always wonder if these things are worth it. They seem to cost more lives of the user country than the enemy. With kamikaze, perhaps the success rate was better, because a regular attack would kill a lot of pilots anyway, without producing any results, so what they did actually caused damage. Desperate times...
he who fights and runs away may live to fight another day. Kamikaze strategy was never really effective as it sinply doesnt make sense an isnt effect simply one man to die to small damage an kill few is useless to dive bombing an said pilot being able to continue to be able to fight
That’s what I was thinking too while watching this. I get that the Japanese thought it was noble to sacrifice their people like this and that they were very desperate, but… that’s not even a viable desperation weapon. That’s wasting resources and lives for nothing.
So strange to be trained to die. I really want to know more about how Japanese propaganda played a role in getting people to sign up for that kind of mission. It's possible that same kind of propaganda is being used on us, wherever you are, and that you or one of your loved ones could be convinced that it's "the right thing to do".
The Japanese believed that the Emperor is a god and when there's a call to sacrifice themselves it would be considered the greatest honor to die for the Emperor and Japan. Kamikaze pilots are volunteers or voluntold by peer pressure. Commanders often just sign everyone up
@@aslamnurfikri7640 yea much like you see muslims doing it these days. its just bad programming for a not so evolved brain but i guess everyone has there own set of suggestibility
The conventional attacks were more suicidal and resulted in more casualties. So a few dying to do the same amount of damage was a grim but rational choice.
Launched from sub or destoryer - they were also supposed to be able to be "launched" from shore/harbors, as a last ditch defense of the home island. where they could be hidden, secretly boarded, and swim out to attack landing ships along the coast.
Japan was not the only country to use manned torpedoes/submarines as Germany also used them, along with the speed boats. In fact the Italians also used attack speed boats. But as with the Germans the Italians were to bail out at last minute. None of these schemes had the success that was envisioned for them and were nothing more than a sign of how desperate they had become. Interestingly the most successful special unit was the Italian frogmen who managed to successfully sink or damage quite bits of Allied tonnage, including two British Battleships which became flooded while in harbour but were refloated.
@@rangergxi Yes they did do very poorly but there are several videos on the German Kamikaze attacks here on RU-vid. I think the one reason little is known about them is because the war in Europe was coming to an end and little in the way of records survived. We know there were attempts to ram American bombers but this was put down to inexperienced German pilots by the USAAF. And its failure to have any effect on the bombers made the Germans curtail these attacks. The other thing was the fact that dwindling fuel supplies meant they could no longer mount the number of attacks needed. It is also thought that a number of these pilots thought better of it and would when sent on a mission would instead head for the British and American line where they would surrender. It is interesting that even amongst Luftwaffe pilots little was known about these attacks. I read an account of a Me 162 pilot whose squadron was visited by a group recruiting for these attacks. He was totally surprised by the visit and was against the idea. But did not believe anything ever came of it.I hope you find this extra information useful.
"None of these schemes had the success that was envisioned for them and were nothing more than a sign of how desperate they had become" LOL, tell to the people in malta, Suda, Alexandria, Gibraltar Edit: oh, you mention that.
iirc there were also similar devices developed if not employed in europe, with the idea that a crew of 2 would pilot the "torpedo" which was actually a vehicle not a weapon, and attach a payload directly to an enemy ship, then pilot away and detonate the payload, sinking the target covertly. it might be an interesting topic for a video
Actually the Italians used them to great effect, including sinking (In shallow water) HMS Queen Elizebeth, and HMS Maya. Both were raised and repaired, but they got away with it. There was a black and white movie on the subject, but I forget it's name off the top of my head.
@@dudududu1926 While I agree with you about idiocy of the tactic, you have to ask yourself how much of a chance an unprotected person would have with a 3500lbs warhead going off in the vicinity.
The British also used manned torpedoes of the Chariot class which was based off the Italian Maiale torpedo They also used the X Class manned torpedo which was used against the Tirpitz
Kaiten means “Heaven Shaker” in Japanese, is the name of a manned suicide torpedo based on the Type 93 “Long Lance” submarine torpedoes and this weapon contains a high-explosive warhead, which is piloted by a suicide pilot when it drops from a Japanese destroyer and reaches its target (i.e. an oiler ship, a troop transport, a destroyer or an auxiliary ship, mostly Allied) until any ship sinks at the bottom of the sea, sometimes, these suicide torpedoes were defective and ended in stranding at sea when their engines malfunctioned. These were used by the IJN's Special Divine Forces at sea, the other suicide weapon was the Shin'yō suicide boat, which uses a high explosive in their speedboats.
As a US Navy Torpedoman of Vietnam era, I can't imagine that this idea would have gotten much of a reception in the Weapons Dept. when the weapons officer came down to the shop and asked for a few volunteers.
Great video as always. Continuing this gloomy thread, have you thought of doing something on the Japanese Ohka? I only know of one movie where it’s featured, the anime “The Cockpit”. Are there others?
I remember as a kid the Navy Yard in Washington DC had one of these subs. It was in a separate building called the annex where some cool items where at. One thing I remember about it was I thought it was a first like a regular midget sub like at Pearl Harbor, kinda grim to find out this was a one way trip machine.
Some 80 years later, similar idea to the Kaiten Submarine were built but shoddily made with Carbon fibre and using wireless Logitec controller as the only means to steer.
I have a Type 99 rifle that was sent home from a sailor aboard the USS Marathon. Reading up on the ship, it was attacked by a Kaiten July 22nd 1945 while docked. The kaiten claimed the lives of 13 sailors that I could find. Blew a huge hole in the side of the ship.
Rumors say the hatch was welded shut before the sub was launched to prevent crew from deserting. Sub had no torpedo tube and it had to ram the enemy ship.
At the very least. A kamakazi's death would be instant. Even if they were shot down. In a Kaiten, I can't imagine the terror. If you miss, you drown. If you hit, you blow up.
The Pacific War Museum in Fredericksburg, TX has the midget sub found on the shore on Oahu, Hawaii. My stepfather saw the sub on the shore before it was hauled off.
its just haunting how some troops of ww2 were either 21 or even younger then 20 meaning some of then were only 19 & 18 but suicide torpedo at 17 talk about early sucide.
I saw this movie and my Japanese is good enough to follow the storyline. It is a testament of an entire nation, whose mindset had gone completely "around the bend." Thanks be to God, the Japanese people, Military and Civilian, are not that way any more.
Nice i added cruisers and replaced transports with destroyers to my v1 axis&allies rules but i can't do that specific thing cause im missing the american and japanese setup boards. so if anyone knows the setup for japan and/or the U.S.A please reply to this comment.
The US in the 1800s designing a submarine: "Ok this design is shit, the entire thing blows up and the crew with it. Scrap this dumb submarine thing and let's just stick to what we have." Japan in the mid 1900s fishing the design out of a trashcan: "This is genius!!! We must make these for the war effort!"
