Japanese ship found after 70 years

manilastandardtoday.com ^

[BenLurkin]

.

The Musashi was one of a trio of vessels built by Japan during the war that, at 263 metres (863 feet) each, were its biggest battleships ever.

American warplanes sank the Musashi on October 24, 1944, at the height of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, regarded as the largest naval encounter of the war in which US and Australian forces defeated the Japanese.

Dozens of Japanese warships that were sunk during World War II have since been found in the Philippines, with some of them now popular dive locations.

The Sibuyan Sea where the Musashi was reportedly found is at the heart of the Philippines’ central Visayas islands, and is home to busy shipping lanes.

[rjsimmon]

The Musashi receiving one of its many tax-payer funded gifts, provided by the peace-loving people of these United States.

[bus man]

I realize that we were fighting a war at the time, so we had to sink the enemy's combatant ships. But in the hindsight of history, it's a true shame that the Musashi (or her sister, the Yamato) couldn't have been saved and preserved as a museum. Or, failing that, I wish we would have preserved the Nagato (Japan's sole surviving battleship) or raised the Haruna (left half-sunk in a shallow harbor) and preserved her.

[Cry if I Wanna]

Dozens of Japanese warships that were sunk during World War II have since been found in the Philippines.

What's the point of this? Sunken warships are cemeteries. There are well over 100 U.S. Navy ships on the bottom of the Pacific that were sunk by the Japanese. Let them all be.

[elcid1970]

IIRC, the few Japanese warships still afloat after V-J Day in 1945 were towed into the middle of Tokyo Bay & blown up by the Allies.

Remember the Betty bombers painted white with green crosses that carried the Japanese surrender delegation? I have seen photos showing every last surviving Jap airplane with the Rising Sun meatball painted over with a white square & a green cross.

Surrender meant surrender even if the Emperor kept his throne.

[ken5050]

I’ve done 9 dives in Truk lagoon..impossible to describe..

[RedMDer]

Let's Git-R-Done!

Less than $1.8k to go!!

[Robe]

I’ve done 9 dives in Truk lagoon..impossible to describe..

I have also courtesy of the US Navy..dove on a number of ships, it was the first deep water dives I ever did, as well as my First Wreck dive.
I was overcome with the sanctity of the place

[bus man]

Sorry, I guess I didn't make my point as clearly as I should have. I'm not saying we should have let Japan keep ANY of her ships post-war; I'm saying that I would have loved to see a few of them preserved as museums. I would have brought them to America and let the people see just what it was that they had defeated. Only later, much later, would I have SOLD them back to Japan -- again, only as museums.

Incidentally, most of Japan's surviving handful of warships were merely scrapped. Nagato was sunk by atomic bombs at Bikini. Katsuragi was used for repatriation duties and then scrapped. I think a few of the destroyers were given to China. IIRC, the U.S. did not keep any of the ships as prizes, as we could have done had we so desired.

[bus man]

Merely visiting a sunken warship is no different, IMO, to visiting a cemetery and paying respects to those who are buried there. Trying to raise such a ship, OTOH, to me would be akin to exhuming a dead body.

[central_va]

Jap destroyers were good for the era they fought in. Better than ours in a lot of ways.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Actually only two Mushashi and Yamato sister ships

Leyte Gulf was a major screw up by Halsey who got fooled by the Japanese

[bus man]

I'm not hugely impressed with the Manila Standard Today's commitment to factual accuracy:

Allen posted photos and video online of parts of what he said was the battleship Musashi, found by his M/Y Octopus exploration vessel one kilometer (1.6 miles) deep on the floor of the Sibuyan Sea.

1.6 kilometers = 1 mile, not the other way around.

It also showed the space on the bow for the Japanese empire’s Chrysanthemum seal.

This is a unique feature of the three biggest warships that Japan built during World War II, according to Kazushige Todaka, director of the Kure Maritime Museum in Japan.

Not unique. All IJN warships had the Chrysanthemum seal affixed to their bows. I must assume that Mr. Todaka's comment must have been misreported in some way, as I would expect someone in his position to know this.

The Musashi was one of a trio of vessels built by Japan during the war that, at 263 metres (863 feet) each, were its biggest battleships ever.

Two of the three ships were built as battleships. The third, Shinano, was originally intended to join them but was instead completed as an aircraft carrier.

[telstar12.5]

Japanese destroyers incessantly drilled in, and were masters at, the use of torpedoes in combat. American naval doctrine tended to minimize their usefulness in naval engagements.

Many American sailors died in initial naval battles during the Guadalcanal campaign because of this shortcoming.

(And Naval commanders were lagging in tactical use of radar as well, one of our technical superiorities.)

[hlmencken3]

On the chrysanthemum seal, I recall something about them being uniquely larger on the largest ships, which is how one of the sunken ships was positively identified quickly.

[elcid1970]

Hindsight is always 20/20. I would have preserved Japanese warships, aircraft, tanks, weapons, archives, based on my perspective of looking back seventy years at a war fought before I was even born.

Movie makers have been kicking themselves ever since.

Guess I was wrong about some of the warships. Of course, just imagine if for example the Nagato were preserved. Nowadays it would be a floating shrine on the scale of the Yasukuni memorial, which angers Chinese & Koreans to this day.

The two white painted Bettys had tremendous historical value but they wound up crashed & burned. One Navy vet who was there remembered boarding one of the Bettys after the Jap delegation was transferred to C-54s for the ride to Manila. He found the cabin floor strewn with documents & later wished he had gathered up as many papers as he could for their archival value.

My Dad was infantry & went in on D-Day. He later told me how he gave away a whole footlocker full of Lugers, P-38s, & Mauser pistols surrendered to him by German officers.

My face fell & he said, “I didn’t know at the time that I would someday have a son who was interested in guns!”

Then there was all the neat stuff I saw in Vietnam....

[sasportas]

American warplanes sank the Musashi on October 24, 1944, at the height of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, regarded as the largest naval encounter of the war in which US and Australian forces defeated the Japanese.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the Australian Navy (nor the British Navy for that matter) had anything to do with the sinking of the Musashi... a US Navy vs Japanese Navy event.

[ken5050]

The number of planes and tanks on the bottom is almost incomprehensible..

[Forward the Light Brigade]

The Japanese should have won Leyte Gulf—but they backed off before they scattered the invasion fleet. They should have pressed home their attack with the Yamoto. Japan should have used more Kamazazis too.

[Tallguy]

3 if you count IJN Shinano — a Yamato class hull fitted out as an auxiliary aircraft carrier. She was sunk by a spree of 4 torpedoes fired from USS Archer Fish (SS-311). Because her internal structure was not complete, she sank after failed attempts to tow by her escorts.