page_title: Japanese Special Attack Units
section_title: Kaiten
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese Special Attack Units / Submarines / Kaiten
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 Kaiten (回天, variously translated as "Change the World", "Returning to Heaven" or "Heaven-shaker") was a torpedo modified as a suicide weapon, and used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II.
  Early designs allowed for the pilot to escape after the final acceleration towards the target, although whether this could have been done successfully is doubtful. There is no record of any pilot attempting to escape or intending to do so, and this provision was dropped from later production kaitens.  The inventor of the Kaiten, Lt. Hiroshi Kuroki was lost during one of the first training missions. When the sub was raised, a note written during his final minutes before death was found, sending his respects to his family and detailing the cause of the accident and how to repair the defect.
caption: Kaiten manned torpedoes, stacked on top of a departing submarine
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