Did a Japanese mini-sub launch a torpedo which struck a battleship during the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941? That is the premise of a new episode of NOVA, the prestigious science program on PBS. Long associated with astronomy and the exploration of space, NOVA has surged into the crossover disciplines that bring science and history together to solve mysteries of the past. The subject here is a most intriguing one and the program, premiering on January 5—a scant month after the 68th anniversary of “a date which will live in infamy”—is sure to incite debate among historians, scientists and Pearl Harbor survivors.

NOVA takes a few known facts about the attack and extrapolates them with an in-depth, self-funded study. The so-called midget subs, 80-foot, two-man, electric-drive submersibles, had more in common with the “I” class subs of the Imperial Navy at the time than did other countries’ small submersibles with their own underwater fleets. The principal factor that separated these subs from their full-size counterparts was their design for a single combat operation; part of the growing Japanese “suicide” threat.

The program, well-produced with archival film—including some in color—clear underwater footage and sophisticated graphics, begins with the well-known existence of the five midgets which were launched from “I” class subs on the night of December 6–7. They account for four of them, those known to be recovered or destroyed in the action on Dec. 7. The facts discussed in these cases agree with accepted historical knowledge; none of those four fired torpedoes at U.S. ships.

One of the most fascinating things about the program is the inclusion of Japanese as well as American scholars. (Japanese TV network NHK contributed to the production.) One of the two remaining intact Pearl Harbor midget subs, displayed outside the Japanese Naval Academy, is used to point out features of the craft. Admiral Kazuo Uyeda (Ret.), the senior surviving officer from the Type “A” sub program, goes along on NOVA’s undersea journey to explore war wreckage outside the mouth of Pearl Harbor. Skeptical at first, Uyeda weighs the evidence gathered and concludes, “…this was the special submarine that was used in Pearl Harbor.”

Throughout the investigation scientific and historical principals are seriously interwoven to draw conclusions. The program even makes a good case for the disappearance of the sub in the West Loch, where it is hypothesized to have been blown up by its crew, then dumped at sea in its present location along with wreckage from the accidental destruction of LST-353 in the West Loch on May 21, 1944. If the program’s premise that this sub actually entered the harbor is convincing, it is less so in supposing one or both of its torpedoes were actually fired at Battleship Row.

Again using scientific and historic evidence, the program examines the claim. A famous Japanese photograph of the attack is examined by two experts who claim torpedo tracks and other water motions can be attributed to the sub firing. This is an interpretation open to debate, according to Chuck Haberlein, Head, Photographic Section, Naval History & Heritage Command. He describes the circumstances of the first encounter with the image by U.S. Navy personnel on September 21, 1942. “It was released for publication by the Japanese Navy Ministry (as an inscription in Japanese in the lower right of the photo states) along with several other photographs of the Pearl Harbor attack (none showing, or subsequently interpreted as showing, any sign of Japanese midget submarines).”

One of the two torpedoes missing from the wreckage of this fifth sub is concluded to have been a dud. Two NPS divers cleared to explore the hull of USS Arizona report to the NOVA team no evidence of a strike on BB-39. According to the photo interpreters, that would leave only USS Oklahoma or USS West Virginia in range. Stuart Hedley is a survivor of the December 7 attack on USS West Virginia. “In the narrow space the sub had to operate it would surely have been affected by the explosion because underwater explosions are more devastating. I could not verify if we got hit by a midget sub torpedo or only torpedoes from the air, but USS West Virginia was hit by nine torpedoes. In my (post-war) talk (as part of the Naval Intelligence section) with (Captain Mitsuo) Fuchida (Japanese first wave flight leader on December 7,) he never expressed any knowledge of a submarine hit on one of the targets. They knew we had an armor belt below the waterline and they added an additional warhead to the air torpedoes for this reason.”

Whether or not the program is conclusive in proving all or any its theories scientifically or historically is open to individual interpretation. One hopes that Adm. Uyeda, who carried symbolic sand from the wreck back to a ceremony in Japan, is convinced of the sub crew’s demise in the small underwater tomb the wreckage provides. In any case the program is a fascinating, entertaining and sometimes solemn and haunting tribute to an event of history that will always be with us.

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