I chanced across Secrets of the Dead: Japanese Super Sub while channel surfing last night. There wasn’t much exhumation/archaeology/poking around, but it was very interesting and jogged my memory a bit (see below).

Embedding the video seems to be borked – click the image below to go to a page where you can watch the show.

Image via.

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In the program, we briefly encounter Unit 731; one of the missions planned for the I-400 class subs was an anthrax attack on the west coast of the US. As always, when Japanese war crimes in Manchuria come up, I marvel at the differences between post-war Germany and Japan. Germany was forced to confront the horror of the Final Solution; Japan was allowed to deny and rationalize.

Quite a while ago I came across (via ?? – where’s my Memex?) pictures of engravings found during the restoration of the only surviving M6A1 Seiran (three Seirans were carried by each I-400 sub). I wonder who made them and what he was thinking about when he did.

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