Kaiten
The Kaiten (Japanese: 回天, translated "Change the World" or "Reverse Destiny") was a torpedo that was changed to become a suicide weapon, and used by the Navy of the Empire of Japan in the last months of the Second World War. It was basically a torpedo with a pilot, and it could be thrown from a submarine or a ship.
The Kaiten was not very effective. Out of more or less 100 attacks made with them, only two enemy ships were sunk.
Kaiten Media
Kaiten Type 1 periscope at the Tokyo Yasukuni War Memorial
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Map of known Kaiten base locations at the end of World War II
A Kaiten Type 1 being trial-launched from the light cruiser Kitakami
A Kaiten Type I at the Tokyo Yasukuni War Memorial Museum
Inside the hydrogen peroxide chamber of a Type 2 Kaiten
Schematic of a Kaiten type 4
Schematic of a Kaiten type 10
A kaiten type 10 on display at the Yamato Museum
Related pages
Other websites
- Kaiten Memorial Museum Archived 2012-02-24 at the Wayback Machine
- Kamikaze Submarine Archived 2006-10-05 at the Wayback Machine
- USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park Archived 2006-10-03 at the Wayback Machine
- US Navy Historical Center Archived 2006-10-19 at the Wayback Machine
- Pictorial account of types 1 and 2 kaitens
- The Kaiten Mark II at the New Jersey Naval Museum in Hackensack, NJ Archived 2007-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
- Humantorpedo 回天 Kaiten (Japanese)
- Sheftall, M.G.. Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze (2005)NAL Caliber. p. 480pp. ISBN 0-451-21487-0.
