June 19th, 1944.
In the midst of the vast blue waters of the Philippine Sea, one of the world’s most modern warships was preparing for its defining battle.
This was JN Taiho, the Great Phoenix, the pride and final hope of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Only 3 months after joining the fleet, Taiho would experience one of the most tragic naval disasters of World War II.
This is the story of the final day of Japan’s super aircraft carrier.
JN Taihaho represented the pinnacle of Japanese ship building technology.
At 260 m in length and displacing 29,300 tons, Taihaho was Japan’s first armored deck fleet carrier, a feature that even American carriers of the time did not possess.
The 75 to 80 mm thick armor protected the flight deck designed to withstand 500 kg bombs.
A multi-layered defense system with 15 watertight compartments, double hulled construction and the most advanced firefighting systems.
Taihaho could carry 75 aircraft including zero fighters, Judy dive bombers and Jill torpedo bombers.
Every detail was meticulously calculated.
Japanese engineers believed they had created an unsinkable ship.
In March 1944, when Taiho was completed, Admiral Jizaburo Ozawa, commander of the mobile fleet, chose Taiho as his flagship.
This was the highest honor, the command center for the entire Imperial Japanese Navy’s carrier force.
In June 1944, American forces landed on Saipan, an island within Japan’s inner defensive perimeter.
If Saipan fell, American B29 bombers could directly attack Tokyo.
The Japanese Navy had no choice.
They had to fight a decisive battle.
Admiral Ozawa’s mobile fleet assembled nine aircraft carriers, five battleships, 13 cruisers, and 28 destroyers.
A total of 473 aircraft.
Opposing them was the US Navy’s Task Force 58 under Admiral Raymond Spruent.
15 aircraft carriers, seven battleships, 21 cruisers, and 69 destroyers.
They had 956 aircraft, double the Japanese numbers.
On Taihaho’s deck, the atmosphere was tense to the extreme.
Over 2,150 sailors prepared for the greatest battle of their lives.
Pilots conducted final checks.
Technicians fueled the aircraft.
At 8:30 a.m.
On June 19th, the first attack wave was launched.
The roar of aircraft engines shook the air.
69 planes from Taiho soared into the sky, heading toward the American fleet 300 nautical miles away.
But just beneath the surface, danger was lurking.
USS Albaore SS 218 was a US Navy Gateau class submarine under the command of Lieutenant Commander James W.
Blanchard.
Since 500 a.m., Albakor had been submerged at periscope depth patrolling these waters.
At 8:09 a.m., the periscope watch shouted, “Carrier dead ahead, 10:00.” Blanchard looked through the scope.
His heart raced.
It was a massive carrier unlike any he had ever seen.
The deck was flat without the high island structure typical of other carriers.
Around it were dozens of escorts.
This was JN Taiho.
Albaor silently moved into firing position.
At 9:09 a.m., Blanchard gave the order.
Fire.
6 Mark 14 torpedoes launched from the forward tubes, leaving trails of bubbles on the surface.
Each torpedo carried 300 kg of Torpex explosive heading straight toward the massive carrier.
On Taihaho, lookouts spotted the torpedo tracks.
Alarm bells rang throughout the ship, but at nearly 30,000 tons, Taihaho couldn’t maneuver quickly enough.
Warrant officer Sakio Kamasu had just taken off minutes earlier.
Over the radio, he heard warnings about the torpedoes.
Looking down, he saw the white wakes racing toward his mother ship.
In an instant, Kamasu made his decision.
He pushed the stick forward, diving his zero straight into one of the torpedoes.
A tremendous explosion.
The Zero and the torpedo disintegrated into thousands of pieces.
Kumasu died instantly.
His sacrifice deflected three other torpedoes.
Two torpedoes passed by the bow, but the sixth torpedo kept coming.
At 9:14 a.m., the torpedo struck Taihaho’s starboard side just below the flight deck near the forward aircraft elevator.
A deafening crash echoed through the hull.
The explosion shook the entire ship.
Sailors were thrown sideways.
Lights flickered.
The ship listed slightly to starboard, but Taihaho was designed to withstand such hits.
The damage control system automatically activated.
Watertight doors closed.
Pumps ran at full capacity.
The initial damage seemed controllable.
The forward elevator was damaged.
Some compartments flooded.
Aviation fuel lines ruptured.
The ship could still make 26 knots.
Anti-aircraft systems still functioned.
Aircraft could still take off and land.
Captain Kikuchi ordered continued combat operations.
On the bridge, Admiral Ozawa decided not to leave the ship.
Taiho remained the flagship.
Everyone believed their super carrier had survived the crisis.
They were wrong.
The real disaster was just beginning.
The torpedo had ruptured the aviation fuel lines.
The high-grade gasoline used for aircraft.
Fuel began leaking into compartments below deck.
Aviation fuel was one of the most dangerous liquids on an aircraft carrier.
It was extremely volatile.
Gasoline vapor was heavier than air, accumulated in low areas, and required only a small spark to cause a catastrophic explosion.
Gradually, the smell of gasoline began to spread.
Sailors reported the strong odor of fuel in many areas of the ship.
The problem was the chief engineer responsible for damage control had been killed in the torpedo explosion.
His replacement, a young inexperienced officer, faced a situation for which he had never been trained.
The replacement officer thought, “If we open the entire ventilation system, the wind will blow away the gasoline smell.
The ship will be ventilated.
The problem will be solved.
At 10:00 a.m.
the order was given.
Open all ventilation ports.
Turn on ventilation fans.
Open windows and hatches.
Immediately the worst thing happened.
Instead of blowing the gasoline vapor out, the ventilation system did something else.
It dispersed the gasoline vapor to every corner of the ship.
The aviation fuel vapor mixed with air created a perfect explosive mixture.
With each passing minute, the entire ship became a giant bomb.
Thousands of cubic meters of explosive mixture accumulated in the engine rooms, ammunition storage, corridors, and crew quarters.
Taihaho continued combat operations as normal.
No one realized they were sitting on a powder keg about to explode.
From 10:00 a.m.
until 2:30 p.m., Taihaho remained operational.
Aircraft took off.
Aircraft landed.
Admiral Ozawa commanded the battle from the bridge.
Outside the battle of the Mob Philippine Sea raged intensely.
American pilots shot down Japanese planes like shooting turkeys.
In four attack waves, Japan lost over 300 aircraft while sinking only two American ships.
But the greatest tragedy had not yet arrived.
No one knows exactly where the ignition source came from.
Perhaps a spark from a generator.
Perhaps a cigarette.
Perhaps metal friction.
Just one tiny spark was needed.
At 2:32 p.m., hell descended.
A thunderous blast ripped through the air.
A tremendous explosion tore Taihaho apart from the inside out.
The armored flight deck, the 75 mm armor designed to withstand 500 kg bombs, was blown into the air like cardboard.
Massive steel plates flew dozens of meters high before crashing into the sea.
The aircraft elevator, weighing dozens of tons, was launched into the sky like a toy.
A column of black smoke rolled hundreds of meters high, visible from dozens of miles away.
The ship shook so violently, people thought it had been torpedoed.
But this wasn’t an attack from outside.
This was the ship destroying itself from within.
In the engine rooms, hundreds of sailors died instantly.
The explosion pressure crushed their bodies.
Those near the center of the blast didn’t even know what happened.
Fire spread at terrifying speed.
Temperatures reached thousands of degrees.
Steel melted.
Tar on the deck bubbled and boiled.
The electrical system collapsed.
The entire ship plunged into darkness.
Only the light from flames remained.
The light of destruction.
Toxic smoke filled the corridors.
Sailors struggled to find escape routes in the darkness, coughing, eyes burning.
Many became lost in the maze of the massive ship.
They ran to doors that had been jammed shut by the explosion.
They cried for help, but no one could hear them over the roar of the flames.
Firefighting teams tried to extinguish the flames, but the water system had no pressure.
Pumps had stopped working.
They could only stand and watch the fire consume the ship.
At 300 p.m., Taihaho began listing heavily to starboard.
Seaater poured in through massive cracks in the hull.
The watertight compartment system, once Taihaho’s pride, was completely helpless against the scale of damage.
On the bridge, Admiral Ozawa tried to remain calm, but he knew Taiho could not be saved.
At 3:20 p.m., when the ship listed 20° and was clearly sinking, he was forced to leave.
Destroyer Wakatsuki approached through the fire and smoke to pick up Ozawa and his staff.
At 3:28 p.m., Captain Kikuchi gave the order.
Abandoned ship, all hands to the flight deck, jump into the sea.
Hundreds of men rushed to the deck in panic.
Some wore life vests, some did not.
They jumped into the sea from 20 m high.
Some died upon hitting the water.
Some were pulled into the still turning propellers.
The escort ships tried to approach to rescue survivors.
But Taiho was sinking fast and could drag the smaller vessels down.
At 3:32 p.m., just 6 hours after being torpedoed, JN Taiho capsized completely.
The massive ship, 260 m long, 29,300 tons, slowly rolled over.
The bow shot high into the air.
The massive propellers emerged from the water, still rotating slowly.
Those still on the ship fell into the water like dolls.
Cries for help rang out everywhere.
Then, with the terrifying sound of twisting and breaking metal, Taihaho slid into the depths.
A massive whirlpool sucked in debris and those unfortunate enough to be nearby.
Air bubbles erupted to the surface.
A large oil slick spread out, burning fiercely.
Then came silence.
The super carrier Taiho, symbol of Japan’s hope, had vanished to the bottom of the Philippine Sea at a depth of 3,000 meters.
Of approximately 2,150 sailors and airmen aboard Taihaho, 1,650 perished, only 500 survived.
Admiral Ozawa and his staff were lucky to escape death.
At sea, destroyers rescued the survivors.
Many were severely burned.
Some were in shock.
All were exhausted and traumatized.
No one found the body of warrant officer Sakio Komasu, the pilot who crashed his plane into the torpedo to save Taiho.
He sacrificed himself to buy six more hours for the ship.
But those 6 hours were not enough.
Taihaho still sank.
Just hours later, the carrier Shokaku was also sunk by an American submarine.
In one day, Japan lost its two largest carriers.
The battle of the Philippine Sea was a complete disaster.
Japan lost over 600 aircraft and three carriers.
America lost only 123 aircraft and no carriers.
On June 19th, 1944, JN Taihaho, the Great Phoenix, sank to the ocean floor along with 1,650 sailors.
With it sank the final hope of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the shortest lived major carrier in history, only 3 months from completion to sinking.
The wreck lies at approximately 3,000 m depth in the Philippine Sea, never to be found.
This is the story of the final battle of JN Taiho.
A lesson written in fire and seaater, in steel and blood, at the bottom of the Philippine Sea, 3,000 m
