The Japanese Long Lance torpedo was one of the most effective underwater weapons of the second world war. It was not, however, in use for very long during the war as Japan ran out of warships that were capable of delivering it and the Long Lances were left in storage.
By 1944 it was quite apparent that Japan was, for the first time in her history, losing a war and the Long Lances were again put into service. There were still no ships capable of delivering them but desperate times call for desperate measures and the Long Lances were made capable of delivering themselves. They became kamikaze submarines.
Kamikaze pilots are surely among the most romantic figures to emerge from the Second World War. Before heading out on missions of glorious death they lived like gods, receiving the best and most plentiful of everything, wearing Samurai headbands and ceremonial short swords. The image of a young man willing to sacrifice himself on a suicide mission for his country and Emperor is very poignant. They derived their name from a Japanese legend in which the invading forces of Kublai Kahn were blown away from Japan's shores by a wind generated by the god Tenshi, the Son of Heaven. The divine wind (kamikaze) saved Japan at the last moment. The Kamikaze pilots, who would become gods if their missions succeeded, would also save Japan in the last moments of a war. Kamikaze airplane and submarine pilots shared in the potential for divinity.
The air pilots of the Divine Wind were, in truth, a devesting weapon. Their small, light planes were very fast and difficult to shoot down. Almost four thousand Kamikazes died in their "special attacks" with, to them, enormously satisfactory results. It seemed worthwhile to attempt such attacks from the sea.
At first the idea of kamikaze submarines was rejected but as Japan's navy was decimated, fuel became scarcer and the war came closer to home it started to seem not only feasible but necessary. The first prototype was built in February, 1944. The original design had an escape hatch but the difficulties in turning a torpedo into a submarine and the impossibility of pilot retrieval made this feature unfeasible. What eventually emerged was a one-man craft, oxygen propelled, with a hydrogen peroxide driven engine and a three thousand pound warhead. The pilots area was very small, with a few basic controls, a seat and a periscope that could be cranked up and down by hand. It was so small that training was very hazardous, most of the trainee pilots sported bandages on faces that had been gouged by the periscopes during dives.
