Kaiten

Designs for a Japanese Kaiten type 1.

Designs for a Japanese Kaiten type 2.

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

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  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

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  A Kaiten Type 1 being trial-launched from the light cruiser Kitakami

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  A Kaiten Type I at the Tokyo Yasukuni War Memorial Museum

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  Inside the hydrogen peroxide chamber of a type 2 Kaiten

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  Schematic of a Kaiten type 4

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  Schematic of a Kaiten type 10

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  A kaiten type 10 on display at the Yamato Museum

Related pages

• Submarine
• Kamikaze
• Ohka

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. (2005). Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze. NAL Caliber. pp. 480pp. ISBN 0-451-21487-0.