page_title: Kairyū-class submarine
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kairyū-class submarine / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Kairyu class submarine in the Yamato Museum at kure hiroshima japan 日本語: 大和ミュージアムに展示される潜水艇海龍
context_page_description: The Kairyu was a class of midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed in 1943–1944, and produced from the beginning of 1945. These submarines were meant to meet the invading American naval forces upon their anticipated approach of Tokyo.
context_section_description: More than 750 of these submarines were planned and by August 1945 about 210 had been manufactured. Most of them were constructed at the Yokosuka shipyard. These submarines had a two-man crew and were fitted with two torpedoes along with a 600 kg (1,300 lb) explosive charge intended to be used on a suicide mission.
  Most of the Kairyu submarines were based at Yokosuka to defend the entrance of Tokyo Bay in the event of a United States invasion of mainland Japan. Some of these subs were also stationed in the Moroiso and Aburatsubo inlets on the southern tip of the Miura Peninsula where a training school had also been set up.
  Due to Japan's surrender on August 1945, after the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, none of these submarines ever saw action.
caption: A Kairyu in the Yamato Museum, Kure
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