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00:03An expedition is underway, and it may rewrite the history of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a day that
00:14forever lives in infamy.
00:18December 7th, 1941, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked.
00:27This is the exact moment when the United States was drawn into World War II.
00:32You would think that we would know just about everything about this attack. We don't.
00:41Most people think of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor as an aerial assault, raining down from the sky.
00:51But now, the mysterious wreck of a Japanese submarine, missing for almost 70 years, has been found in the waters
00:59just outside Pearl Harbor.
01:01Could the attack have also come from below?
01:07It's my conclusion after analyzing the data that this sub fired its torpedoes prior to its sinking.
01:14It's almost like a CSI situation where we have a crime scene.
01:18We have numerous torpedo tracks in the water.
01:21Can forensic science unlock the secrets of the mystery sub and reveal the true story of the attack on Pearl
01:29Harbor?
01:29Fire in the hole!
01:31Pearl Harbor is wrapped in enigma and mystery and somewhere is the truth.
01:36Killer subs in Pearl Harbor, next on NOVA.
01:55Major funding for NOVA is provided by the following.
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03:02Oahu.
03:04One of the Hawaiian islands.
03:07A vacation paradise in the Pacific.
03:13Spectacular vistas.
03:15Tropical beaches.
03:17And vivid reminders of the past.
03:23For a few hours early on December 7th, 1941, this little piece of heaven became a living hell.
03:35The sky that Sunday morning blazed in the crossfire of a fierce aerial assault.
03:43More than 350 Japanese aircraft bombing and blasting the American Pacific Fleet birthed in Pearl Harbor.
03:51Dive bombers strafing people, planes, and structures on the shore.
04:00The surprise attack shook not only the entire harbor, but also an entire nation that suddenly found itself at war.
04:12Over 2,400 Americans lost their lives in the battle.
04:18Almost half of them died on just one ship.
04:27The USS Arizona.
04:33It remains under the sea.
04:35A powerful symbol of a devastating day.
04:42Today, a monument is built on top of the wreck.
04:46Over a million people visit each year and pay their respects.
04:50To the 1,177 men, most of whom remain entombed inside the hull of the Arizona below.
04:59A sunken, 600 foot long steel coffin.
05:03The skin came off the side of my butt.
05:07Don Stratton was on the Arizona directing anti-aircraft guns at incoming planes when the ship caught fire and sank.
05:15My hair was burnt off.
05:16I lost part of my nose, part of my ear.
05:19My back was burnt.
05:21Both my legs were burnt.
05:26It was just a hell of a day, but I don't talk about that much.
05:30So that's all I got to say about that.
05:35But there was another part of the Japanese offensive completely hidden from view.
05:42Popular perception is that the Pearl Harbor attack was primarily an aerial attack coming from the sky.
05:51It's the ultimate air raid.
05:53But a closer look at the Battle of Pearl Harbor really reveals that there's a lot more to it than
05:58that.
05:58And it also tells us a lot about the Japanese expectations, that they really wanted to completely cripple the Pacific
06:04Fleet.
06:07Compelling evidence now suggests that Pearl Harbor was attacked not only from above, but below.
06:17Hours before Japanese aircraft carriers launched their planes from a position north of Oahu,
06:22a secret weapon was already approaching from the south.
06:27According to military records, shortly after midnight, five Japanese submarines slipped undetected to within just a few miles of Pearl
06:37Harbor.
06:38Each one carrying a technological marvel on its back, a two-man midget sub.
06:46The five type A midget submarines were about a quarter the length of the mother sub.
06:52Just six feet wide and packed with equipment, these miniature subs were designed for efficiency, not comfort.
07:01A 600 horsepower electric motor propelled the midget subs swiftly underwater at 19 knots, twice as fast as many American
07:11submarines of the day.
07:12The midget subs could not only take the enemy by surprise, they could hit the enemy hard.
07:20The bow of a midget sub on display at the Naval Academy in Japan shows how.
07:27It carried two Type 97 long lance torpedoes specially made for this midget sub.
07:36Just one of these modified long lance torpedoes could punch a hole in a towering battleship.
07:46The Japanese built hundreds of midget submarines during World War II and deployed them all across the Pacific and Indian
07:54Oceans.
07:56The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor would be the midget sub's opening act for the war that followed.
08:06Author Burl Burlingame has investigated their top secret operation.
08:13The midget submarines were supposed to get in the harbor, lie low, wait for the attack to happen, and then
08:18surface, fire their torpedoes into the American ships, attacking them from the bottom as well as from the top.
08:25But how well did the plan succeed?
08:30We know that four of the five midget subs launched that morning failed in their mission.
08:38One midget submarine was sunk before the attack. It did not fire its torpedoes.
08:44Midget sub number one was shelled by the USS Ward over an hour before the Japanese warplanes attacked.
08:54It remains where it sank, just outside the harbor.
09:01Midget sub number two entered Pearl Harbor, but after missing its target with both torpedoes, the sub was destroyed by
09:09a pair of American ships.
09:12It was raised two weeks after the attack and buried as landfill, two down.
09:20And another two would never make it even close to the harbor.
09:26Midget sub number three ran aground on the east side of Oahu, and its captain became the first Japanese prisoner
09:34of war.
09:36Neither of its torpedoes had been fired.
09:40It is now on display at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Texas.
09:47The fourth midget sub turned up years later, several miles south of Pearl Harbor.
09:52Another midget submarine was found in 1960 at Kei Heligun, and it still had its torpedoes in it. And that
10:01midget submarine was shipped back to Japan.
10:05It now stands outside the Naval Academy in Etojima.
10:10It's pretty clear that four of the submarines did not actually complete their mission.
10:15What about number five, the last of the midget subs?
10:20The fifth one was a mystery. Historians differed on what it could have done or where it could have ended
10:26up.
10:28We know that midget sub number five began its journey in Kure, Japan.
10:36Petty officer Kichiji Deewa was aboard its mother sub the night number five launched into battle.
10:44Deewa recorded his thoughts in a secret diary.
10:50After long days of waiting, X day has come. The crew were dressed in clean clothes and prepared.
11:00During the war, the Japanese were told that the fifth midget sub had scored a devastating kill.
11:07The Japanese midget submarineers became the heroes of the attack in Japan.
11:11They were given credit for sinking the USS Arizona.
11:16Did midget sub number five sink the Arizona or any other American battleship that day in Pearl Harbor?
11:24I think that that cat and mouse game is still going on with historians trying to find out what happened
11:30to the fifth sub.
11:32Now, after almost 70 years, the mystery may be solved.
11:37And the true story of the attack on Pearl Harbor finally revealed.
11:47Terry Kirby is a submersible pilot who has been exploring the ocean floor around the Hawaiian Islands for years.
11:54This is what it looked like when I first found it.
11:57The area just outside of Pearl Harbor is an underwater museum of World War II debris.
12:02We found wrecks of airplanes and vehicles and pure parts and lots of junk.
12:11During a routine test dive three miles south of Pearl Harbor, Terry spotted something unusual.
12:18Yeah, look at that.
12:20That's definitely a conning tower sticking up.
12:22Looks like this whole end is blown off.
12:24It was a long cube of steel.
12:27And to an expert eye, it resembled part of a Japanese midget sub.
12:33Terry eventually found two more sections spread out across the ocean floor.
12:39But are all three pieces from the same submarine?
12:44And if so, is it the wreck of midget sub number five, missing since December 7th, 1941?
12:53Good morning!
12:55NOVA has assembled a unique team of investigators to find out.
13:00They come from both sides of the battle, America and Japan.
13:08Leading the investigation is marine forensic historian Park Stevenson,
13:12a former U.S. Navy officer and submariner.
13:16Today is the day.
13:18After months of study, we're actually going down to the wreck of the midget sub
13:23that we've identified as potentially the last of the missing Japanese midget subs
13:28that participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
13:33Joining Park's is Admiral Kazuo Ueda.
13:36I was honored that Admiral Ueda offered to come out here.
13:41He was the senior surviving midget submariner from the war.
13:45No one knows the whole context of the Japanese midget subs better than he.
13:52Admiral Ueda has his doubts about the midget sub.
13:56He doesn't think it is midget sub number five,
13:59but one damaged and dumped by American forces later in the war.
14:06Historian Go Okamoto knows midget subs from the inside out.
14:10He wrote a book on the midget submarines.
14:13He's probably the premier Japanese expert, and we'll try and get down to...
14:18Go wants to study the wreck before drawing any conclusions.
14:24The Japanese built hundreds of midget subs during the war.
14:28One of the few things we know about the midget submarines as a class of submarines
14:32is that the Japanese Navy was always tinkering with them.
14:36The five midget subs deployed at Pearl Harbor were early models,
14:40and unlike any that followed.
14:47The team plans to dive over 1,000 feet below the surface in two deep-sea research submersibles.
14:55The Pisces IV and the Pisces V.
15:01Admiral Ueda will dive in the Pisces IV.
15:06Go joins Park Stevenson in the Pisces V with Terry Kirby at the controls.
15:11Terry Kirby!
15:14Just big enough for a three-person crew, the submersibles can dive to a depth of over a mile,
15:21and stay down for up to 10 hours.
15:28Equipped with instruments to monitor the ocean and collect samples,
15:32the Pisces IV and the Pisces V are state-of-the-art midget submarines.
15:40But they're tools of science, not weapons of war.
15:46Entirely different from the Japanese midget subs of 1941.
15:53Even though Terry's been down here before, doesn't mean the sub is easy to find.
16:00After searching for over an hour, the crew sees some World War II wreckage.
16:07We have come across what appears to be an upside-down amphibious track vehicle.
16:12Looks like there's been damage to the underside of it.
16:17These are the wrecks of several amphibious assault vehicles.
16:23But nestled among them...
16:26Okay, we got something coming up here.
16:29What at first glance could be a torpedo,
16:32is actually the stern of a Japanese midget submarine.
16:36Pisces IV and V, we're at the stern section.
16:42The size and shape are unmistakable to historian Go Okumoto.
16:48To learn more, he and Parks want to examine the rudder,
16:52the movable fin that steers the sub.
16:56We want to see the rudders.
16:57We're trying to match the shape of the rudders to that single screw guard.
17:03The rudder design on the five subs sent to Pearl Harbor was never used again.
17:08That's because it was a liability.
17:13The rudder is very small in proportion to the value of the ship.
17:18This means that it is not very powerful.
17:21This makes it necessary for the sub to have a large turning radius.
17:27After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese would change the rudder design
17:30to make the midget subs more maneuverable.
17:35The Pisces V moves in for a closer look.
17:39So this looks like it landed on the tail.
17:42It's kind of crumpled up a little bit.
17:45Though the stern is badly damaged,
17:48the rudder on its back is still visible.
17:51We still do see the small, thin rudders.
17:55Based on that, it's consistent with the Pearl Harbor submarine.
18:01One piece of the puzzle may be in place.
18:05But a cable dangling from the stern doesn't quite fit.
18:09What's a curved piece of left to the left?
18:13Is that a cable?
18:14It's a cable.
18:18Goh believes this cable is completely out of place,
18:22and not part of any Pearl Harbor midget sub.
18:27Pisces IV, we're moving on.
18:31Terry Kirby steers the Pisces V toward the second piece of the wreck,
18:36as the Pisces IV follows.
18:40Before the war, the American military knew almost nothing about these midget subs.
18:45They were the Japanese Navy's most guarded secret weapon.
18:50We simply didn't know about these midget submarines.
18:53And when they appeared at Pearl Harbor, they actually caused quite a stir.
18:58The December 7th attack turned out to be not only a military surprise,
19:02but also a technological one.
19:06Other countries were developing midget subs,
19:09but they were mostly human-guided torpedoes,
19:13crude, unreliable, and often suicide weapons.
19:18Well, technically speaking,
19:20Japanese midget subs were first barrier to their counterparts
19:24produced by British, German, or Italian navies.
19:28The Japanese versions were more like real submarines,
19:32but much more compact.
19:33They were able to sort of miniaturize the propulsion technology and use batteries.
19:40The midget sub made ingenious use of its limited space.
19:45Divided into seven compartments,
19:47both pilot and captain operated inside a control room the size of a closet,
19:53crammed with switches, instruments, and a radio telegraph.
19:58These cleverly designed machines were constructed in a closely guarded plant in three separate sections.
20:06Almost the same way the mystery sub would be found decades later.
20:15Terry Kirby maneuvers into position next to what appears to be the midsection of a Japanese midget sub.
20:25It is much different than I expected. The sub is quite wrecked.
20:31Pisces 4, Pisces 5.
20:33Parks and Go are looking for a pulley.
20:37The mouth of Pearl Harbor was protected by anti-torpedo nets, so the midget subs had net cutters attached to
20:45the bow.
20:46A cable was installed with a pulley to guide the net up and over the sub so it wouldn't get
20:51caught.
20:53At first, they can't see it.
20:58Then...
20:59All right, so there's a tensioning pulley.
21:05After Pearl Harbor, both pulley and cable were modified.
21:11According to historian Go Okamoto, this pulley looks like it belongs on a Pearl Harbor midget sub.
21:21Yet with each new clue comes another puzzle.
21:25They find a mysterious cable attached to the midsection, just like the one on the stern.
21:33But there's still one more piece to examine.
21:37Roger, I can use the range and bear in to the bow section, over.
21:44The sharp-edged net cutters attached to the bow of the five Pearl Harbor midget submarines were unique.
21:52Unlike any others that followed, they were shaped like a figure eight.
21:57After the Pearl Harbor attack, it was assumed that the midget submarines had trouble getting through our nets.
22:01So they added these great big net cutters that looked like something out of a Jules Verne novel.
22:05The figure eight net cutter is key to identifying midget sub number five.
22:12The current has put us visit him.
22:15The Pisces submersibles move in on the bow.
22:20And there it is, right back in there.
22:28Admiral Ueda confirms the discovery.
22:33It is in the shape of a number eight.
22:36One can conclude definitely that this was the special submarine that was used in Pearl Harbor.
22:43Go Okamoto agrees.
22:53Out of sight at the bottom of the sea for almost 70 years, the fifth midget sub has at last
23:00been found.
23:03A giant piece of the Pearl Harbor puzzle has fallen into place.
23:09And now the key question can perhaps be answered.
23:14We know that none of the other midget subs successfully fired their torpedoes inside Pearl Harbor.
23:20But unlike the other four, did midget sub number five fire its torpedoes into a battleship?
23:28The Navy High Command actually believed that it heavily damaged or sunk one American battleship at Pearl Harbor.
23:37Japanese war records revealed that shortly after midnight on December 7th, 1941,
23:43midget sub number five surfaced seven miles outside of Pearl Harbor on the back of its mother sub.
23:50As the mother sub slowly descended for the launch, the two-man crew of number five was ready for action.
24:00Pilot Saddamu Kamita sent a final letter to his parents.
24:05Should anything happen to me, do not grieve, for I have dedicated my life in service to his Imperial Majesty.
24:14Years earlier, Commander Masaji Yokoyama had written four words on his Naval Academy notebook.
24:20Figure, spirit, patience, and honesty.
24:26Both men would need these attributes in the hours ahead.
24:32Petty Officer Kichiji Dewa recalls that Kamita and Yokoyama were highly qualified for the job.
24:41They were specially selected ones who proved to be at the top of their class.
24:48We were more than brothers, especially for midget submarines.
24:52It is something that deals with life and death.
24:57Dewa was the last person to speak with the crew.
25:01Before going off to attack, the captain of the midget submarine said,
25:05thank you for your maintenance work.
25:08The only response I could give him was, please take care and good luck.
25:16With that, the two submarines pulled apart.
25:20The mother sub remained at sea, while number five headed straight for the mouth of Pearl Harbor.
25:28But did it do any harm?
25:32The camera on Pisces 5 is able to peer right inside the torpedo tubes.
25:40Both of them are empty.
25:43Right at the business end of the bow section of the midget submarine.
25:47Staring right down the empty torpedo tubes.
25:51It's an amazing sight.
25:54But if midget sub number five succeeded in firing its torpedoes, did they find their target?
26:04Around 10.40pm, some 12 hours after the attack, petty officer Dewa received a message in Morse code from midget
26:13sub number five.
26:14The Japanese characters, Kira.
26:17A message that made no sense.
26:20Dewa thinks the exhausted crew made a mistake.
26:33To-ra begins with a dot-dot.
26:39Kira begins with a dash-dot.
26:44All it takes is an extra second on the clicker to turn a dot into a dash.
26:52Their hand might have slipped.
26:55To-ra was a Japanese code word.
26:59The airplanes that flew to Hawaii sent the same signal.
27:03To-ra, to-ra, to-ra.
27:06It meant we have succeeded in our surprise attack.
27:11The mother sub sent word to the Japanese high command, where the report of success was taken as fact.
27:20In their absence, the midget submariners were accorded the highest honors.
27:25During the war time, these midget sub crews were regarded as hero gods.
27:32Which is sort of like in between human and God.
27:34And they sold posters of them, they were sort of like the rock stars of World War II Japan.
27:42The Japanese media embraced the idea that these men had sacrificed everything for the nation, made a film about them.
27:53They had books written about them.
27:55But the midget submariners were given vast amounts of credit for the success of the attack.
28:02And for petty officer Daewa, who had come to know the crew of Number 5, the message had a special
28:09meaning.
28:11They did it. That's what I felt.
28:14We were eagerly waiting for the news of success.
28:18When we finally received it, I realized our success.
28:23The two empty torpedo tubes appear to support that success.
28:28But just because the tubes are empty, doesn't mean the torpedoes were fired.
28:35Perhaps they were removed.
28:37The answer to this question cannot be found below.
28:42I see storm, okay, okay, you are clear to surface, clear to the surface, sir.
28:49Definitely Pearl Harbor sub.
28:52The empty torpedo tubes just really stand out.
28:58Forensic historian Park Stevenson wants to discover exactly what those empty torpedo tubes mean.
29:07He sends all the information to microbial ecologist Lori Johnston, an expert in what happens to metals underwater.
29:16Think of the sub as melting into the sea.
29:19Even though the encrustation on the torpedo tubes looks like rust, it's not.
29:25Ordinary rust is a purely chemical reaction.
29:29This is something entirely different, known as a rusticle.
29:34A rusticle is a living organism.
29:37It's actually bacteria, microorganisms, that are naturally found in the environment.
29:42Also found in the wreck of the Titanic, rusticles feed on metal in salt water.
29:48This is an example of a rusticle.
29:51It's full of little crevices and cracks and tunnels.
29:56So you're not dealing with one type of bacteria, you're dealing with multiple types of bacteria.
30:01A consorm or consortium of bacteria.
30:03Each different tunnel has different types of bacteria working together.
30:07That's why they're so good at being able to break down steel.
30:12Any types of metal, any types of nutrients, they're able to incorporate that within the rusticle structure.
30:20Bacteria most likely would have started breaking down midget sub number five soon after it sank.
30:27Once the sub has been in the water for a very short period of time, within weeks and months,
30:32encrustation has already started to form.
30:34So it's almost like cementing the torpedo within the tube.
30:39That would make it extremely dangerous to remove.
30:43It would be taking your life in your own hands by removing an active, alive torpedo
30:47that had started to cement in the tube.
30:52Lori believes all the evidence points in a single direction.
30:56It's my conclusion after analyzing the data that this sub fired its torpedoes prior to its sinking.
31:04If midget sub number five fired both of its powerful long lance torpedoes,
31:11what was the target?
31:16Just 40 feet beneath the surface of Pearl Harbor lays the wreck of the USS Arizona,
31:24where over a thousand American servicemen lost their lives,
31:29and where most of them still remain.
31:37Diver John Chatterton and National Park Service archaeologist Matt Russell will search for evidence of a torpedo hit on the
31:46hull of the Arizona.
31:57It's a war grave.
32:00Only a select few are permitted to dive here.
32:04And even fewer are allowed to film what lies at rest beneath the waves.
32:12As Chatterton and Russell explore the wreck, the events of the day come alive.
32:20This is a stairway on December 7, 1941.
32:24American sailors would have been running up these steps, grabbing onto these handrails and trying to save their ship.
32:36This is the original wood planking that covered the main deck of Arizona back here in the sky.
32:43This looks like scarring from shrapnel over here and over there.
32:48It could be battle damage from the December 7 attack.
32:57We know that the Arizona was attacked by bombs from above, but some eyewitnesses say it was also torpedoed from
33:06below.
33:08The crew was doing that. They were cutting the lines here and getting people across.
33:14Okay, but you definitely...
33:15Arnold Bauer was aboard the USS Vestal, a repair ship moored alongside the Arizona.
33:21So you are 100% confident that the Arizona received one or more torpedoes during the attack?
33:31Yep. I saw the track.
33:34Okay, so you were standing here at the quarter deck.
33:37And I went over on this side to see what was going to happen to this side.
33:41Wait a minute. Why did you go running over here?
33:43Because I figured a torpedo was going to hit here. I wanted to be on the other side.
33:51On the morning of December 7, 1941, Don Stratton was defending the Arizona from incoming fire.
33:59And he remembers a pair of torpedoes heading towards the ship.
34:04I swear to this day that two of them were headed right towards the Arizona in the vessel.
34:09For those people who say that the Arizona definitely wasn't torpedoed, what do you have to say to them?
34:16They weren't there.
34:18But you saw them?
34:19I saw them.
34:20You saw the torpedo?
34:21For sure.
34:24But after hours of searching, Matt Russell and John Chatterton can't find any evidence of a torpedo hit.
34:32We've gone over virtually every inch of the port side of Arizona's bow.
34:38We don't see anything that would indicate damage from a torpedo.
34:42Yeah.
34:44But what if that torpedo was a dud?
34:52Anti-submarine expert Tom Taylor has uncovered an obscure passage in a congressional report by Admiral Nimitz, commander of the
35:01Pacific Fleet.
35:01It describes an unexploded torpedo sited inside Pearl Harbor, one that may have come from midget sub number five.
35:12At the end of one of the paragraphs, it states a recovered unexploded torpedo carried an explosive charge of 1
35:20,000 pounds.
35:22We knew that the aerial torpedoes were only around 500 pounds.
35:28That could only be a submarine torpedo. The aerial torpedoes were less than half that charge.
35:35The fact that he reported that they recovered this torpedo indicates corroborating evidence that a midget submarine had penetrated battleship
35:44row and had fired upon it.
35:46We will never know if that torpedo was intended for the USS Arizona.
35:51But if it was a dud, that still leaves one more torpedo unaccounted for.
35:57On the morning of the attack, the USS West Virginia and the USS Oklahoma were close to the Arizona on
36:04battleship row.
36:08Two naval experts believe they have found a photograph of midget sub number five in action against at least one
36:15of them.
36:15Here we are.
36:22Recovered after the war, this picture was taken by a camera on a Japanese plane the morning of December 7th.
36:29It's fuzzy and unclear, but some experts believe it's a midget sub firing a torpedo straight into battleship row.
36:39To this point was roughly 1,600 feet. We have numerous torpedo tracks in the water.
36:46Naval intelligence officer John Rodgaard and forensic engineer Peter K. Hsu have spent years analyzing this single photograph.
36:56What we see in this photo is the effects of the initial aerial torpedo strikes against battleship row.
37:07We can see the concussion waves radiating out from the ships that have been hit.
37:12We can see torpedo tracks in the water.
37:15We see an object in the water with a distinctive horizontal feature and a distinctive vertical feature.
37:22Both are features of a midget submarine.
37:25The vertical feature would be the sail. The horizontal feature, the hull.
37:30We can see behind it plumes of water caused by a propeller.
37:34Could those plumes of water be caused by a torpedo being dropped by an airplane?
37:40No, because the torpedo hitting the water has a distinctive splash.
37:45It's a forward movement.
37:49This does not have that characteristic.
37:51It's more of a fountain effect caused by a propeller.
37:56The propeller of midget sub number five.
38:01Whenever a Japanese midget sub fires a torpedo, there's a sudden loss of balance.
38:08A torpedo weighs about one ton. The sub weighs 46 tons.
38:14When a torpedo is launched, the forward part suddenly gets one ton lighter.
38:20Which in turn rocks the sub up and down as the crew struggles to regain control.
38:27This creates a unique plume of water called a rooster tail, which occurs when the propeller flies out of the
38:33water.
38:36But did the torpedo hit its target?
38:40The rooster tails in the photograph could offer a clue.
38:43It generates a surface disturbance.
38:47According to Sue, an expert in fluid dynamics, one of these rooster tails may also be the result of the
38:53midget sub torpedo hitting its mark.
38:56This kind of animation.
38:57Under John and Peter's guidance, NOVA has taken the team's original classified calculations and re-engineered them into revealing animation.
39:08When a torpedo blasts into a ship, it produces a shock wave, powerful enough to lift a sub out of
39:15the sea, even at a distance.
39:21The shock wave created by an airborne torpedo isn't powerful enough to reach the midget sub.
39:28The area generated by the shock wave does not reach the submarine.
39:34Because the torpedo fired by a midget sub has a warhead almost twice the size as an airborne one, the
39:41shock wave it creates radiates much farther.
39:44And when that torpedo hits its target...
39:48The cavitation extends beyond the submarine and lifts it above the surface.
39:54But how does the animation compare with the original photograph?
39:58What we see in the animation is the effect of the explosion on both the submarine and the large rooster
40:07tail.
40:09As we can see as a snapshot in time of the large plume behind the submarine in the photograph and
40:15the plume rising alongside the West Virginia.
40:18And the correlation is perfect.
40:23The West Virginia took at least seven torpedo hits.
40:27The Oklahoma was hit by up to nine torpedoes.
40:32While most were launched from planes, Rod Gard and Sue believed that two of those torpedoes were fired by midget
40:38sub number five.
40:39One striking the West Virginia.
40:43The other one appearing to move towards the Oklahoma.
40:47This leaves us with conflicting conclusions.
40:51I saw the track.
40:53So you were standing here...
40:55If the accounts of some eyewitnesses and the Nimitz report are to be believed, one torpedo was fired at the
41:02Arizona but turned out to be a dud.
41:05If the photographic experts are to be believed, then two torpedoes were fired hitting the West Virginia and the Oklahoma.
41:14Either way, it appears likely that midget sub number five successfully fired its torpedoes inside Pearl Harbor.
41:24So after completing its mission, where did it go?
41:29We actively know through documents and through primary source photographs that there was a hunt for these submarines.
41:37The chances of one getting out, I think, is extremely narrow.
41:42During the attack, a US naval minesweeper reported both sighting and firing upon what appeared to be a midget submarine
41:50trying to escape the harbor.
41:54They had nautical charts of Hawaii in their hand.
41:58They had the basic map of the inner harbor memorized in their head.
42:05Where would the sub go?
42:07What was safe?
42:10Okay, so if we're Yokoyama here, as he's starting to run out of options, if he's trying to escape...
42:14Park Stevenson examines a Japanese map from one of the recovered midget subs.
42:19So if I'm looking at this chart, and I seem to run out of options, there's this area right here,
42:25which is open.
42:26And according to this Japanese legend over here on the side, the West Lock doesn't have a whole lot in
42:31it.
42:32Parks believes number five escaped to the relative isolation of the West Lock, at the time a backwater fueling area.
42:41But what happened to the sub and its crew, Commander Masaji Yokoyama and Pilot Sadamu Kamita?
42:51During the investigation of the wreck, the team discovered what could be a frightening clue.
42:58About ten feet of the sub appears to be missing.
43:03If you look at the edges of this torn steel here, it's bent outward.
43:11Whatever did the damage back here came from inside the sub.
43:17In order to keep Japan's secret weapon out of enemy hands, the crew was instructed to escape if they could.
43:27But to destroy their submarine by igniting a scuttling charge, lashed to the midsection.
43:37Did Yokoyama and Kamita follow these instructions? And if so, how?
43:46NOVA has recruited a team of experts to find out.
43:52If the two men scuttled their sub on the surface, they could have lit the fuse and possibly escaped with
43:58their lives.
44:00If the crew was submerged, then the crew is probably still sealed inside.
44:05This thin metal here is scale thickness to the thickness of the sub hull.
44:10Not exactly.
44:11Naval engineer Roger Long has created a scale model of a midget submarine from an old scuba tank.
44:17Whoa!
44:18Demolitions expert David Loring is in charge of the action.
44:22This is Naval Weapon Station Earl EOD demolition range.
44:26About 11,000 acres of bombs and bullets.
44:30And we're going to test it on the surface with this open as if they set off the scuttling charge
44:35with the sub floating.
44:36And then we're going to explode it underwater with a plastic cap to simulate the fact that the hatch only
44:41has very small resistance to blowing open.
44:44We'll be looking for differences in the damage pattern between the surface submarine and the sunken submarine.
44:49We're going to be utilizing underwater explosives, C4.
44:53We're going to place it inside the sub in the approximate location that the scuttling charges are placed, which is
44:59in this area here.
45:03The first experiment will replicate a scuttling charge with the midget sub surfaced.
45:08Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole!
45:14Fire in the hole!
45:17The water helped us.
45:20The first result is disappointing.
45:23It doesn't match the damage discovered underwater.
45:27It doesn't look anything like the one we're thinking about.
45:33The team decides to experiment with a slightly larger charge.
45:38Fire in the hole!
45:40Fire in the hole!
45:48I think we overdid it a little bit.
45:51We're going to need another tank.
45:54Whether the charge is large or small,
45:57it appears that midget sub number five was not scuttled on the surface.
46:04A new tank is prepared,
46:06and the replica of the midget sub is secured to the bottom.
46:10Next we want to replicate the other surface model with a smaller charge,
46:14exactly the same charge but at the bottom of that tank over there,
46:17so that we can see what happened if it exploded on the bottom.
46:21Fire in the hole!
46:26The damage is a lot more similar to the Pearl Harbor sub,
46:29which leads me to think that the scuttling charge is set off with the sub on the bottom,
46:33not on the surface.
46:35That's very positive.
46:36The demolition team concludes that the sub was scuttled underwater,
46:42which implies the remains of the crew are still inside.
46:50But none of this explains how midget sub number five wound up in three pieces at the bottom of the
46:56ocean,
46:56several miles outside Pearl Harbor.
47:02During the underwater investigation,
47:04three mysterious cables were found attached to all three pieces of the submarine.
47:09We've got four mating surfaces.
47:12For a salvage diver like John Chatterton, this can only mean one thing.
47:17My best guess is that this submarine was salvaged.
47:21It was brought up, put on some kind of platform.
47:25It was cut apart.
47:27The three sections were taken apart, and then they were taken out and dumped.
47:33But who dumped it, and why?
47:40John Chatterton joins Park Stevenson for a closer look at the West Lock,
47:45where the team believes midget sub number five was scuttled.
47:48What do we have over here, Parks?
47:50Well, this is the Wapea Peninsula.
47:52It's largely uninhabited as part of the Naval Reservation.
47:55Back in 1941, it was covered with sugar cane fields.
48:00But this is the entrance to the West Lock.
48:04And then they see it.
48:07The final clue hidden in plain sight.
48:11Now, what we're approaching here is the wreck of the LST-480.
48:16An LST.
48:18It stands for landing ship, tank.
48:21These are naval vessels built to carry troops, cargo, and tanks directly onto shore.
48:28The area surrounding the wreck of midget sub number five is littered with the landing craft the LSTs carried.
48:38That's a big rock here.
48:39Oh, no, it's not a rock, it's a landing craft.
48:43Oh.
48:44When we were searching for the midget sub pieces, we ran across numerous damaged amphibious track vehicles.
48:52Oh, no, this is another landing craft.
48:54Different one.
48:56They're all over the place, okay.
48:59But why are they here?
49:04Turns out, Pearl Harbor suffered more than one unexpected disaster on a Sunday morning.
49:09It took place three years later, on May 21st, 1944.
49:17Unlike December 7th, this second disaster is not well known, because until recently, it was veiled in secrecy.
49:25As the Navy prepared for the invasion of the Pacific island of Saipan, a terrible explosion claimed the lives of
49:33almost 200 people in the West Lock.
49:37There was an accident in the ammunition handling aboard the LST 353.
49:41The explosion spread from LST to LST, sank six LSTs, killed a couple hundred sailors, wounded hundreds more.
49:51The invasion needed to get back on track, so the West Lock was cleaned up quickly and quietly.
49:57The remnants of the disaster that could be razed were hauled outside the harbor and dumped.
50:03But along with the damaged equipment, it appears the Navy may have also scooped up midget sub number five, long
50:10after it was scuttled in the West Lock.
50:13It's my contention that during that cleanup, they found our midget sub, they razed it, they put it in with
50:20the rest of the debris, and took it out there and dumped it all together.
50:28Perhaps that's why it now lies amidst an assortment of US military hardware from the West Lock disaster, three miles
50:37outside Pearl Harbor, a thousand feet at the bottom of the sea.
50:46Today, Admiral Ueda visits the wreck of midget sub number five to honor the remains of pilot Sadamu Kamita and
50:55Commander Masaji Yokoyama.
50:59Mr. Kamita, here is your brother.
51:06Here is Mr. Deva, who accompanied you to Pearl Harbor.
51:13A cup full of sand is carefully removed from the sea floor beneath the sealed control room of the midget
51:20sub, and given to Admiral Ueda to take home.
51:25The remains for the spirits of the dead from the submarine would now be reunited with the sand.
51:39Admiral Ueda presents the sand to petty officer Deva.
51:45He brings it to a memorial service for Japanese sailors who lost their lives in midget submarines.
52:00The sand that is brought back from Hawaii is purified.
52:06Now becomes Japanese soil, so to speak.
52:16For Kichiji Deva, the mission is at last over.
52:23For Park Stevenson, it's always been about bringing the facts to light.
52:29I want their accomplishment known so that their sacrifice will have meaning.
52:38Time may yet uncover new details in the history of Pearl Harbor.
52:44And each step we take towards the truth of the heroic and tragic events of that day, not only honors
52:52the people who lived it, but serves future generations, as the real story is finally revealed.
53:12This is what we were.
53:16This is where we've been.
53:21This is who we are.
53:24The hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
53:30This is our experience.
53:32The American experience.
53:39Egypt.
53:41Pyramids, tombs, mummies, and ships.
53:44New evidence could completely revise our view of the ancient Egyptians.
53:48It was so incredible, so unbelievable.
53:51These were probably the highest expression of engineering of any society.
53:56Were the people who built the pyramids, also some of the greatest seafarers in the ancient world.
54:01Building Pharaoh's ship.
54:03Next time on NOVA.
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