Crouching dragons: the suicide divers Japan never sent to war
Japan’s wartime kamikaze pilots remain among the most recognisable symbols of the Pacific war: young men flying aircraft into Allied ships on missions from which they were not expected to return. Far less well-remembered are the fukuryu – suicide frogmen trained in the closing months of World War II to walk into the sea with mines on bamboo poles, then wait beneath the waves for an Allied…
In the closing months of World War II, Japan trained suicide frogmen known as the fukuryu, or "crouching dragons," to carry out their final defense against an Allied invasion. These brave men were never expected to return from their missions, which involved wading into the sea with mines attached to bamboo poles, waiting beneath the waves for enemy ships.
Despite the grim nature of their work, very few of the estimated 1,200 fukuryu survivors are still alive. Photographer Kanade Hamamoto has made it her mission to bring the story of these lesser-known kamikaze fighters back into public consciousness. Her award-winning photo book "ー・・", which translates to "Arrived at the seabed," features the Morse code-style signal used by the divers to communicate underwater.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
