A Japanese submarine that was preparing to attack the Panama Canal during World War Two has been discovered off the coast of Hawaii.
The 400-foot (122-meter) ‘Sen-Toku’ class vessel - among the largest pre-nuclear submarines ever built - was found by chance in August off the southwest coast of Oahu.
It has been missing since 1946 according to scientists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The I-400 and its sister ship, the I-401, which was found off Oahu in 2005, were able to travel one and a half times around the world without refuelling.
It could also hold up to three folding-wing bombers that could be launched minutes after resurfacing, the scientists said.




‘We came upon this as we were looking for other targets ... It is like watching a shark at rest,’ said Jim Delgado, a researcher aboard the Pisces V deep-diving submersible which traveled to the wreckage.
The U.S. Navy captured five Japanese subs, including the I-400, at the end of World War Two and brought them to Pearl Harbor for inspection, the scientists said on Monday.
‘It was torpedoed, partially collapsed and had sunk at a steep angle,’ said Delgado, an archaeologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which helped to fund the dive.




U.S. forces sank the submarines and claimed to have no information on their precise location, in an apparent bid to prevent their technology falling into the hands of the Soviet Union, which had demanded the ships be returned to Japan.
Other mega subs have been found in waters off Oahu and in the Sea of Japan. One in the submarine class remains missing.
The discovery of the I-400 was announced on Monday after NOAA had reviewed its findings with the U.S. State Department and Japanese government officials, researchers said.

Sumber

Karena takut teknologinya di jatuh ke tangan Uni Soviet kapal ini ditenggelamkan .....?