Researchers find WWII Japanese sub

HONOLULU – The wreckage of a large World War II-era Japanese submarine has been found by researchers in waters off Hawaii.

A team from the University of Hawaii discovered the I-401 submarine Thursday during test dives off Oahu.

“We thought it was rocks at first, it was so huge,” said Terry Kerby, pilot of the research craft. “But the sides of it kept going up and up and up, three and four stories tall. It’s a leviathan down there, a monster.”

The submarine is from the I-400 Sensuikan Toku class of subs, the largest built before the nuclear ballistic missile submarines of the 1960s.

They carry a crew of 144. The submarines were designed to carry three “fold-up” bombers that could be assembled for flight within minutes.

Kerby said the main hull is upright and is in good shape. The I-401 numbers are visible, and the anti-aircraft guns are in almost perfect condition.

An I-400 and I-401 were captured at sea a week after the Japanese surrendered in 1945. Their mission reportedly was to use the aircraft to drop rats and insects infected with bubonic plague, cholera, typhus and other diseases on U.S. cities.