Early submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy - Kure, Hiroshima, Japan

The first Imperial Japanese Navy submarines were purchased from Electric Boat in the United States in1904. These five ships were assembled in the U.S. under the supervision of Arthur Busch to the specifications laid out by John Holland; these two men had previously built the very first commissioned submarine in the USN, USS Holland (SS-1). The five ships were partially dismantled and shipped to Japan in kit form, where they were assembled by Busch at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal and commissioned as Type-1 submarines, No. 1 through 5. All this was done in secret, as the U.S. was technically neutral in the Russo-JapaneseWar of 1904-5.

A Holland Type-1 submarine In Kure, Japan. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Ready for combat by 1905 but too late to take part in the conflict with Russia, the ships were used as training vessels, and were later joined by no. 6 and 7, as Kawasaki Shipyard in Kobe bought plans directly from Holland and built them under the supervision of two of his assistants. These ships formed the first submarine squadron in Kure in 1906 and took part in training the next generation of submariners. All five of the original ships were decommissioned in April 1921 and broken up. No. 6 sank off Kure in 1910 during an accident; all 14 men died, and this became a sensational story in the rapidly militarizing Japanese society.

The Commanding Officer of No.6, Lt. Sakuma Tsutomu 佐久間勉, wrote a detailed note listing the events that had led to the sinking, and the steps the crew had made to save the ship; this helped build a picture of what had gond wrong so the nascent IJN submarine force could learn from the accident and adjust their handling and damage control for future submarines. Lt. Sakuma apologized to the Emperor and to the families of his men, all of whom had died at their stations, despite dying of asphyxiation.

Lt. Sakuma Tsutomu 佐久間勉

Initially set up as a memorial in Kure, No. 6 was was dismantled by order of the Occupation Forces in 1945. The hull became a pier, although as of this writing I'm not exactly sure where that is. Some parts of the ship are preserved in the Submarine Archive of the Submarine Education and Training Unit of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, also in Kure.

Today, you can see the remnants of the Imperial Japanese Navy right alongside its replacement, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, across the city. A trip to Kure from the tourist areas in Hiroshima is probably a 30 minute trip; if you're coming from MCAS Iwakuni, roughly 90 minutes. I've written about the city before; the Yamato Museum is here, among many other monuments and memorials. I recommend everybody visiting Japan to check out what Kure has to offer!

Happy exploring,

Tony