Sunk: The Story of the Japanese Submarine Fleet, 1941-1945

Author Mochitsura Hashimoto was one of the few Japanese submarine captains to survive. Shortly before the end of WW2 he inflicted the greatest single loss on the U.S. Navy in its history, when he torpedoed and sank the USS Indianapolis -- soon after it had delivered parts for the first A-bomb on Hiroshima to the US base on Tinian, ironically enough. The title, however, refers to the fate of the Japanese submarine fleet. It's a tale of the bravery of doomed men in a lost cause, against impossible odds. The kaitens or human torpedoes were not the only submarine kamikazes: the whole war in the Pacific was suicide from the start. So why did Japan go into the war? Hashimoto is sharply critical of the recklessness and unpreparedness of Japan's top brass. With an introduction by Cmdr. Edward L. Beach, author of the best-seller "Submarine!"