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Kaitens
were crewed torpedoes and suicide craft, used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II. History In recognition of the unfavorable progress of the war, towards the end of 1943 the Japanese high command considered suggestions for various suicide craft. These suggestions were initially rejected, but later deemed necessary. Various suicide craft were developed in the Japanese Special Attack Units. For the Navy, this meant ''Kamikaze'' planes, '' Shinyo'' suicide boats, ''Kaiten'' submarines, and ''Fukuryu'' suicide divers or human mines. The ''Kamikazes'' were somewhat successful, and the second most successful were the ''Kaitens''. Research on the first Kaiten began in February 1944, followed on 25 July of the same year by the first prototype. By 1 August, an order for 100 units had been placed. Development The very first Kaiten was nothing much more than a Type 93 torpedo engine compartment attached to a cylinder that would become the pilot's compa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Torpedo
Human torpedoes or manned torpedoes are a type of diver propulsion vehicle on which the diver rides, generally in a seated position behind a fairing. They were used as secret naval weapons in World War II. The basic concept is still in use. The name was commonly used to refer to the weapons that Italy, and later (with a larger version) Britain, deployed in the Mediterranean and used to attack ships in enemy harbors. The human torpedo concept has occasionally been used by recreational divers, although this use is closer to midget submarines. History of common wartime models The concept of a small, manned submarine carrying a bomb was developed and patented by a British naval officer in 1909, but was never used during the First World War. The Italian Navy experimented with a primitive tiny sub ( Mignatta) carrying two men and a limpet mine: this craft successfully sank Austro-Hungarian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis'' on 1 November 1918. The first truly practical human t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suicide Attack
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout history, often as part of a military campaign (as with the Japanese ''kamikaze'' pilots of 1944–1945 during World War II), and more recently as part of terrorist campaigns (such as the September 11 attacks in 2001). While few, if any, successful suicide attacks took place anywhere in the world from 1945 until 1980, between 1981 and September 2015 a total of 4,814 suicide attacks occurred in over 40 countries, killing over 45,000 people. During this time the global rate of such attacks grew from an average of three a year in the 1980s to about one a month in the 1990s to almost one a week from 2001 to 2003 to approximately one a day from 2003 to 2015. Suicide attacks tend to be more deadly and destructive than other terror attacks because th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yūshūkan
The ("Place to commune with a noble soul") is a Japanese military and war museum located within Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo. As a museum maintained by the shrine, which is dedicated to the souls of soldiers who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the museum contains various artifacts and documents concerning Japanese war casualties and military activity from the start of the Meiji Restoration to the end of World War II. The museum was established in 1882, and describes itself as the first and oldest war and military museum in Japan. It has attracted controversy for its revisionism of Japanese's wartime actions and militaristic past. History The museum was initially established in 1882 to preserve and display Meiji Restoration-era artifacts of the Imperial Japanese Army. Following the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, the Meiji Emperor issued his 192nd order in 1910, which ordered the preservation of military artifacts. The building was expanded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballast Tank
A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water, which is used as ballast to provide hydrostatic stability for a vessel, to reduce or control buoyancy, as in a submarine, to correct trim or list, to provide a more even load distribution along the hull to reduce structural hogging or sagging stresses, or to increase draft, as in a semi-submersible vessel or platform, or a SWATH, to improve seakeeping. Using water in a tank provides easier weight adjustment than the stone or iron ballast used in older vessels, and makes it easy for the crew to reduce a vessel's draft when it enters shallower water, by temporarily pumping out ballast. Airships use ballast tanks mainly to control buoyancy and correct trim. History The basic concept behind the ballast tank can be seen in many forms of aquatic life, such as the blowfish or argonaut octopus. The concept has been invented and reinvented many times by humans to serve a variety ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hundred years, has changed its meaning over time. During the Age of Sail, the term ''cruising'' referred to certain kinds of missions—independent scouting, commerce protection, or raiding—fulfilled by frigates or sloops-of-war, which functioned as the ''cruising warships'' of a fleet. In the middle of the 19th century, ''cruiser'' came to be a classification of the ships intended for cruising distant waters, for commerce raiding, and for scouting for the battle fleet. Cruisers came in a wide variety of sizes, from the medium-sized protected cruiser to large armored cruisers that were nearly as big (although not as powerful or as well-armored) as a pre-dreadnought battleship. With the advent of the dreadnought battleship before Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kaiten Memorial Museum
is a museum on the island of Ōzushima in the Inland Sea An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large and is either completely surrounded by dry land or connected to an ocean by a river, strait, or "arm of the sea". An inland se ..., in Shūnan, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, dedicated to the history and memory of the '' Kaiten'', a Special Attack Unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The museum first opened near the remains of the island's training base in 1968, reopening in today's building in 1998. The collection of some one thousand items includes wills, letters, uniforms, personal belongings, and photographs. The displays combine these exhibits with information panels on the background and history of the unit and the lives of those served in it. The museum is "a facility for learning about Peace through the minds and hearts of the '' Kaiten''".「「回天」の心を通じ平和について学� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seto Inland Sea
The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka Bay and provides a sea transport link to industrial centers in the Kansai region, including Osaka and Kobe. Before the construction of the San'yō Main Line, it was the main transportation link between Kansai and Kyūshū. Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Okayama, Hyōgo, Osaka, Wakayama, Kagawa, Ehime, Tokushima, Fukuoka, and Ōita prefectures have coastlines on the Seto Inland Sea; the cities of Hiroshima, Iwakuni, Takamatsu, and Matsuyama are also located on it. The Setouchi region encompasses the sea and surrounding coastal areas. The region is known for its moderate climate, with a stable year-round temperature and relatively low rainfall levels. The sea is famous for its periodic caused by dense groupings of certain phytopl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ōzushima
, or Ozu Island, is an inhabited island in the Inland Sea, Japan. Administratively, it forms part of the city of Shūnan, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Ōzushima is also known as "Kaiten Island". Geography Situated in the Seto Inland Sea across the exit from Tokuyama Bay and formerly two islands, Ōzushima and are said to have become one some four hundred years ago. Gently curved, long, and thin, and with a outline that somewhat resembles a misshapen Y, today's Ōzushima extends some from north to south, and has an area of . There are a number of small settlements along the coast, including and , the centres for the island's masons and stoneworkers, the farming communities of and , and the fishing hamlets of and . Parks on the island include Ōzushima Park and Mashima Park, while part of the island and its surrounding waters is protected within Setonaikai National Park. The southern coastline is suffering from severe coastal erosion. Flora On Mashima, the southern end of the isla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Type 92 Torpedo
The Type 92 torpedo was a submarine-launched torpedo used by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power .... It was in length and 21 inches (53 cm) in diameter. This type of torpedo was battery powered. It could deliver a 660-pound (300 kg) warhead at 30 knots (55 km/h) to a target 7 kilometers (3.8 nautical miles) away. Torpedoes of Japan World War II weapons of Japan World War II naval weapons {{Missile-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gyroscope
A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rotation (spin axis) is free to assume any orientation by itself. When rotating, the orientation of this axis is unaffected by tilting or rotation of the mounting, according to the conservation of angular momentum. Gyroscopes based on other operating principles also exist, such as the microchip-packaged MEMS gyroscopes found in electronic devices (sometimes called gyrometers), solid-state ring lasers, fibre optic gyroscopes, and the extremely sensitive quantum gyroscope. Applications of gyroscopes include inertial navigation systems, such as in the Hubble Space Telescope, or inside the steel hull of a submerged submarine. Due to their precision, gyroscopes are also used in gyrotheodolites to maintain direction in tunnel mining. Gyrosco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
