WWII 'Samurai subs' found

These subs were designed to launch fighter float planes, we took the idea and designed missile launches from the sea. "Japanese submarine technology was so advanced at the end of World War II that Russian scientists wanted to get their hands on five seized boats, but a squadron of clandestine American submariners secretly sailed them out of Japan and brought them to Pearl Harbor.
Advertisement

The subs would eventually be scuttled five miles off O'ahu and all but forgotten. But yesterday's announcement that two of them had been discovered in waters 3,000 feet deep pulled 91-year-old, retired Navy Cmdr. Allen Burdett 'Buck' Catlin back to a time of global gamesmanship when Japan's wartime innovations in submarine warfare were discovered only after its defeat.

Three of the roughly 400-foot, 'Sen-Toku' class Japanese submarines could carry at least two fighter bombers each. Even submerged, they could sail 1 1/2 times around the planet without refueling."