Japanese submarine I-177

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I-176.jpg
I-176, lead submarine of the class that includes I-177
History
Naval Ensign of Japan.svgEmpire of Japan
NameI-177
BuilderKawasaki Shipyards
Launched20 December 1941
Commissioned28 December 1942
FateSunk by USS Samuel S. Miles (DE-183) on 3 October 1944
General characteristics
Class and typeKaidai type, KD7-class
Complement86

Japanese submarine I-177 was a Kaidai-type of cruiser submarine that served during World War II in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). I-177 was a KD7 subclass boat, commissioned on 28 December 1942 and sunk by USS Samuel S. Miles (DE-183) on 3 October 1944, with no survivors.

War crimes[]

Following the end of the Pacific War, Australian war crimes investigators investigated whether the I-177 and her commanding officer, Commander Hajime Nakagawa, were responsible for sinking the 3,222-ton Australian hospital ship AHS Centaur. Centaur had departed Sydney, Australia, on 12 May 1943 bound for Port Moresby, New Guinea, to evacuate sick and wounded personnel during fighting in the New Guinea campaign[1] and was steaming northward in darkness off the east coast of Australia 40 nautical miles (74 km; 46 mi) east of Brisbane,[1] displaying the lights and markings required of a hospital ship in wartime under the Hague Convention,[2] when I-177, operating on the surface, sighted her.[3] I-177 submerged to periscope depth and torpedoed her at 04:15 on 14 May 1943.[3][4] The torpedo ignited a fuel tank, setting the ship ablaze.[3] Centaur rolled to port and sank within three minutes. Her survivors drifted until 15 May 1943, hearing I-177′s as she passed through the area of the sinking again on the surface in the early-morning darkness of 15 May, before a patrol aircraft and the United States Navy destroyer USS Mugford (DD-389) came to their assistance.[5] Of the 332 crew, patients, medical staff, and passengers on board Centaur, 268 died; only 64 were rescued.

Nakagawa survived the war. Several of the investigators suspected that Nakagawa and I-177 were most likely responsible, but they were unable to establish this beyond reasonable doubt. However, Nakagawa was charged with ordering the machine-gunning of survivors from torpedoed ships on three different dates in February 1944 while in command of the submarine I-37. He was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment at Sugamo Prison as a Class B war criminal.[6] Nakagawa refused to ever speak on the subject of the sinking of Centaur, even to defend himself. He died in 1991.

References[]

  1. ^ a b Edwards, p. 59.
  2. ^ Edwards, p. 60.
  3. ^ a b c Edwards, p. 62.
  4. ^ Dennis & Grey 2009, p. 124
  5. ^ Edwards, pp. 64–65.
  6. ^ Jenkins, Battle Surface, pp. 284–5

Further reading[]

  • Combinedfleet.com HIJMS Submarine I-177: Tabular Record of Movement
  • Dennis, Peter; Grey, Jeffrey (2009). The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-551784-2.
  • Edwards, Bernard (1997). Blood and Bushido: Japanese Atrocities at Sea 1941–1945. New York: Brick Tower P0ress. ISBN 1-883283-18-3.
  • Jenkins, David (1992). Battle Surface! Japan's Submarine War Against Australia 1942–44. Milsons Point, NSW: Random House Australia. ISBN 0-09-182638-1. OCLC 0091826381.


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