DISCOVERED: Lost World War II–Era Submarine Identified Off Japan Coast

Using a remote, undersea probe, scientists discovered the resting place of a U.S. Submarine off the coast of Japan, that sunk during World War 2. Here's the story.

(Photo:  USS albacore submarine. Credit: National Archives)

Lost World War II–Era Submarine Identified 

Archaeology.Org Feb 2023

TOKYO, JAPAN—The Maritime Executive reports that a wrecked submarine off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan, has been identified as the USS Albacore by the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) with the assistance of Tamaki Ura of the University of Tokyo.

Japanese war records show that an American submarine hit a naval mine near the coast of the island of Hokkaido on November 7, 1944.

Ura and his colleagues found the site and were able to examine key structural elements in the murky underwater conditions with a remotely operated vehicle. Those elements include modifications made to the Albacore at Pearl Harbor, such as the addition of a radar dish and mast, a row of vent holes, and the lack of steel plates along the upper edge of the fairwater, or tower-like structure on the topside of the submarine.

Japan’s NHK News reports the submarine was found approximately 4.3 miles off the city of Hakodate. This corresponds to the Tsugaru Strait, a narrow waterway between Hokkaido and the main island of Honshu. Albacore was likely positioned to ambush any shipping transiting the strait, or traveling between the two islands. She was reportedly instructed to stay out of the strait itself, which the U.S. Navy believed might be mined.

The wreck is protected by the NHHC as a war grave. 

 To read in-depth about similar research done at Pearl Harbor, go to "December 7, 1941."