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You know what happened in the early morning hours of December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor. But this is a story about what didn’t happen that day, and how the failure of a tiny Japanese submarine helped turn the war effort.
From the air, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service was responsible for most of the destruction on Oahu, but there was also an attack planned from the sea. It did not have the devastating impact that came from above.
HA19 was a miniature submarine launched from a much larger Type C cruiser submarine, the I-24. The midget submarine had a crew of two, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki and Chief Warrant Officer Kiyoshi Inagaki. It was one of five such submarines launched that morning with the mission of torpedoing ships inside the harbor. Two were sunk by US Navy torpedoes, a depth charge knocked one out, and one may have gotten inside the harbor and successfully fired its torpedoes. There was much chaos that day, so its fate is in dispute.
What is not in dispute is that HA19 and its crew had a miserable morning. First, their gyrocompass quit working. Then, they crashed into a reef three times before being grounded. The USS Helm fired on the little sub, missing it, but knocking it off the reef. That allowed it to submerge and make another try for the harbor entrance. Again, they found themselves on the reef, this time with a dead engine. Sakamaki gave the abandon ship order. He was shortly captured. CWO Inagaki’s body washed ashore the next day.
Sakamaki gained some level of notoriety by becoming the first Japanese prisoner of war.
HA19 became a symbol of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a clunky, physical trophy that toured the country on a flatbed trailer. Viewing ports were cut into the side of the submarine so that people could see inside for the price of a $1 savings stamp. It toured 41 states, making a stop in Boise in October 1944.
Today, HA19 is on permanent display at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.
From the air, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service was responsible for most of the destruction on Oahu, but there was also an attack planned from the sea. It did not have the devastating impact that came from above.
HA19 was a miniature submarine launched from a much larger Type C cruiser submarine, the I-24. The midget submarine had a crew of two, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki and Chief Warrant Officer Kiyoshi Inagaki. It was one of five such submarines launched that morning with the mission of torpedoing ships inside the harbor. Two were sunk by US Navy torpedoes, a depth charge knocked one out, and one may have gotten inside the harbor and successfully fired its torpedoes. There was much chaos that day, so its fate is in dispute.
What is not in dispute is that HA19 and its crew had a miserable morning. First, their gyrocompass quit working. Then, they crashed into a reef three times before being grounded. The USS Helm fired on the little sub, missing it, but knocking it off the reef. That allowed it to submerge and make another try for the harbor entrance. Again, they found themselves on the reef, this time with a dead engine. Sakamaki gave the abandon ship order. He was shortly captured. CWO Inagaki’s body washed ashore the next day.
Sakamaki gained some level of notoriety by becoming the first Japanese prisoner of war.
HA19 became a symbol of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a clunky, physical trophy that toured the country on a flatbed trailer. Viewing ports were cut into the side of the submarine so that people could see inside for the price of a $1 savings stamp. It toured 41 states, making a stop in Boise in October 1944.
Today, HA19 is on permanent display at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.
The graffiti-covered “suicide” submarine in Boise. Photo courtesy of the Idaho State Historical Society’s physical photo collection.
The front of the Japanese two-man sub parked in front of Boise City Hall. Photo courtesy of the Idaho State Historical Society’s physical photo collection.
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