The Imperial Japanese Navy approved in February 1944 the development of a new top-secret weapon called kaiten, a manned torpedo to be launched from a submarine. In September 1944, a base for kaiten production and testing was opened on Åtsushima Island in Tokuyama Bay in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The first kaiten attack on American ships took place on November 20, 1944, and kaiten attacks continued until the end of the war. Due to strict military secrecy surrounding the kaiten program, facts concerning deployment of manned torpedoes did not get disclosed to the Japanese public until after the war.
MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY OF ROCHESTER
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