Researchers in Hawaii have found a mammoth World War II-era Japanese submarine scuttled by the U.S. Navy in 1946 to keep its advanced technology out of the hands of the Soviet Union.
The Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory at the University of Hawaii discovered the I-400 in 2,300 feet of water off the southwest coast of Oahu, according the school.
“Finding it where we did was totally unexpected,” lab director Terry Kerby said in a university statement. “All our research pointed to it being further out to sea.”
At nearly 400 feet long, the I-400 and its two sister ships were the largest submarines ever built before the nuclear age.
Initially conceived as a weapon to target the U.S. mainland and capable of reaching any point on the globe without refueling, the subs were effectively underwater aircraft carriers outfitted with three folding-wing seaplanes capable of carrying an 1,800-pound bomb. . .