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| Japanese Sub I-14 | Japanese Sub I-14 and I-400 | Japanese Prisoners | Japanese Prisoners | Japanese Prisoners |
At the end of the war the Japanese Submarine I-14 rendezvoused with my Dad's Destroyer Escort. The crew disembarked and were searched and a prize crew was placed on board. My dad had mentioned that he crew had Thompson submachine guns at the ready while the Japanese prisoners were on board. It wasn't until I scanned the images and enlarged them that I could see in the third photo to the left of the hatch a crewman with a Thompson pointing skyward. Dad also mentioned that the prisoners seemed really happy. Again I didn't see it until I enlarged it, but in the last photo the prisoners are waving their hats and some are clearly smiling. The sub itself has a hangar for 2Aichi Seirun seaplanes and a catapult launching ramp up front. Its purpose was a one way trip to the Panama Canal to bomb and disable one of the locks with a single 1764lb Steel tipped bomb. A present day photo of a restored example is below:
Aichi M6A1 Seiran Float Plane at the Udvar Hazy Aviation Museum
This example of the Seiran has been restored and is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Read more about the Seiran on the Smithsonian Site.
