page_title: Japanese Special Attack Units
section_title: Kairyu
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese Special Attack Units / Submarines / Kairyu
caption_attribution_description: Photo #: NH 78660. Japanese "Kaiyu" Type Midget Submarine. Partially submerged, circa October-December 1945. Halftone photograph, copied from the U.S. Naval Technical Mission to Japan Report S-01-7: "Characteristics of Japanese Naval Vessels, Article 7: Submarines, Supplement II", January 1946, page 124, figure 134. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
context_page_description: During World War II, Japanese Special Attack Units, also called shimbu-tai, were specialized units of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army normally used for suicide missions. They included kamikaze aircraft, fukuryu frogmen, and several types of suicide boats and submarines.
context_section_description: The Kairyu (海龍, "Sea Dragon") was a class of Suicide midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed in 1943-1944, and produced from the beginning of 1945. These submarines were designed to meet the invading American Naval forces upon their anticipated approach of Tokyo.
  These submarines had a two-man crew and were armed with two torpedoes and an internal warhead for suicide missions. Over 760 of these submarines were planned, and by August 1945, 200 had been manufactured, most of them at the Yokosuka shipyard.
caption: A Kairyu in the Aburatsubo inlet
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