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This article refers to the entire Kaiten-class; it is not about an individual vessel.

The Kaiten were truly human guided torpedoes. Many authors do not include the Kaiten as a midget submarine since it is more of a person going on a torpedo ride; but they were machines whose design included transporting a person under the water and they fit the midget sub definition otherwise.

Kaitens were the first Japanese "Special Attack" weapons, vehicles whose use involved the certain death of the crew, though their first successful use followed the Kamikaze aircraft by about a month. Proposals for human torpedoes were made in 1943 and were approved in early 1944, initially with provision for the survival of the operator. However, the extreme peril facing Japan after the loss of the Marianas in June 1944 led to acceptance of the pilot's death as an inevitable consequence of Kaiten use.

The initial Kaiten Type 1 was converted from a 24-inch Type 93 torpedo. A new 39-inch forward section containing the warhead, additional fuel, oxygen tanks, and the pilot's compartment was grafted to the torpedo's middle and after sections, producing an overall length of just over 48 feet. Speed could be varied from 12 knots, giving a range of some 85,000 yards, to 30 knots and a range of about 25,000 yards. For guidance, the pilot had a short periscope. The Kaiten's immense 3,400-pound explosive warhead, more than three times the size of the Type 93 torpedo's original warhead, was capable of producing catastrophic damage in the target ship. Over 300 Type 1 Kaitens were produced in 1944-45; but only two are known to have been used to successfully sink enemy vessels.

Larger Kaiten Type 2 and Type 4 had hulls about 4.5 feet in diameter and 55 feet long. The warhead was as large or larger than that of the Type 1 and performance was better. The Type 2 was not built in any quantity but some 50 of the less-ambitious Type 4's were reportedly built in 1945. There was also an experimental Type 3 of similar size to the Types 2 & 4 and a Type 10. Only the Type 1 was deployed operationally, however.

Operational Uses

On 20 November 1944, five submarine-launched Kaitens penetrated the US anchorage at Ulithi in the Caroline Islands. Only one had any success, however, sinking the fleet oiler USS Mississinewa amidst pillars of thick black smoke that could be seen throughout the fleet. Eight months later on 24 July 1945, east of the Philippines, another Kaiten sunk the Buckley-class destroyer escort USS Underhill. These two incidents are the only confirmed successful Kaiten attacks, although some Japanese sources list higher numbers.

Photographs

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