Kaiten Group
"Todoroki"
Submarine I-361, I-363,
I-36 and I-165
(Sortie 24 May through 15 June,
1945)
Submarine I-361
Commemorative Picture for
the Sortie
Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Kanai, Flight Petty Officer 1st Class
Iwasaki, Sub-lieutenant Kobayashi, Staff Officer Sasaki, Captain
Matsuura, Commander Nagai, Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Tanabe and
Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Saito (Front from the left)
Flight Petty Officer 1st
Class Kanai, Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Tanabe, Sub-lieutenant
Kobayashi, Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Iwasaki and Flight Petty
Officer 1st Class Saito (From the left)
The departing Submarine
I-361, flying carp streamers high in the sky
The Submarine I-361
departed on 24 May, heading for the area of sea southeast of Okinawa
but was missing in action. (She was sunken on 30 May according to the
U.S. record.)
Kaiten pilots, Sub-lieutenant Tomio Kobayashi (54th Naval Engineering
School graduate), Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Yukio Kanai, Flight
Petty Officer 1st Class Tatsuo Saito, Flight Petty Officer 1st Class
Susumu Tanabe and Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Shizuya Iwasaki
died.
Crews of 81 and Captain Shoji Matsuura (Lieutenant) died.
Submarine I-363
Commemorative Picture for
the Sortie
Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Kubo, Flight Petty Officer 1st Class
Ishibashi, Sub-lieutenant Kamiyama, Chief Officer Daigo, Captain
Kihara, Ensign Wada and Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Nishizawa
(Front from the left)
Kaiten pilots were heading
for the pier with flowers in their hands.
The Submarine I-363
departed on 28 May, heading for the area between Okinawa and the
Ulithi Atoll but did not have any opportunities to attack and came
back on 28 June.
Submarine I-36
Commemorative Picture for
the Sortie
Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Yanagitani, Flight Petty Officer 1st
Class Yokota, Ensign Sonoda, Captain Sugeyoshi, Chief Officer Daigo,
Sub-lieutenant Ikebuchi, Ensign Kuge and Flight Petty Officer 1st
Class Nomura (Front from the left)
Kaiten pilots with flowers
in their hands and with the ashes of their fellow officers who died
in the training in their bosom.
Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Yokota, Flight Petty Officer 1st Class
Nomura, Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Yanagitani, Ensign Kuge,
Ensign Sonoda and Sub-lieutenant Ikebuchi (From the left)
The Submarine I-36
departed on 4 June, heading for the area of sea east of the Philipine
Sea.
Sub-lieutenant Nobuo Ikebuchi (Osaka Nihon University), Ensign Minoru
Kuge (Osaka University of Commerce), Flight Petty Officer 1st Class
Hidemasa Yanagitani died in the Kaiten mission on 28 June.
Three Kaitens were not launched due to the disorder and came back on
9 July.
Submarine I-165
Commemorative Picture for
the Sortie, with the flowers from the citizens in their hands
Petty Officer 2nd Class Ebisu (maintenance man), Petty Officer 1st
Class Abe (maintenance man), Petty Officer 1st Class Kitamura, Ensign
Mizuchi (From the left)
Kaiten pilots stood in
salute after they received short swords.
(What the second Kaiten pilot Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Kitamura
had around his neck was the ashes of Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class
Yazaki, who was from the same prefecture and died in the training.)
Kaiten pilots with flowers
in their hands headed for the submarine by a motor launch.
Departing Submarine
I-165
The Submarine I-165
departed on 15 June, heading for the Philipine Sea but was missing in
action. (She was sunken on 27 June according to the U.S. record.)
Kaiten pilots, Ensign Soichi Mizuchi (Waseda University) and Flight
Petty Officer 1st Class Jujiro Kitamura died.
Crews of 106 and Captain Yasushi Ono (Ensign) died.
Next (Kaiten Group
"Tamon")