Kaiten: Japan's Secret Manned Suicide Submarine And the First American Ship It Sank in WWII [Paperback]

In November 1944, the U.S. Navy fleet lay at anchor deep in the Pacific Ocean, when the oiler USS Mississinewa exploded. Japan’s secret weapon, the Kaiten—a manned suicide submarine—had succeeded in its first mission.
 
The Kaiten was so secret that even Japanese naval commanders didn’t know of its existence. And the Americans kept it secret as well. Embarrassed by the attack, the U.S. Navy refused to salvage the sunken Mighty Miss. Not until 2001, when a diving team located the wreck, would survivors learn what really happened.
 
In Kaiten, Michael Mair and Joy Waldron tell the full story, from newly revealed secrets of the Kaiten development and training schools to gripping firsthand accounts of U.S. Navy survivors in the wake of the attack, as well as the harrowing recovery efforts that came later.
 
INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHSPraise for Kaiten

“A powerful tale about how an intersection of youth, patriotism, and sacrifice ended in a fiery suicidal assault on an American warship. More than recounting a battle, this is a very human story that relives one of the most painful episodes of World War II.”—James P. Delgado, author of Silent Killers: Submarines and Underwater Warfare

“A crisp, persuasive narrative about a little-known but startling World War II attack . . . Mair and Waldron portray the story from both perspectives, constantly building to a dramatic, fiery crescendo. Their profiles of American and Japanese sailors add poignancy to a compelling story of battle disaster, death, and survival.”&amlcÎ