Japanese Sunken Aircraft Carrier “Kaga” Found Under the Pacific Ocean

Photo Courtesy : Washington Post

According to the news of Washington Post, hundreds of miles off Midway Atoll, nearly halfway between the United States and Japan, a research vessel is launching underwater robots miles into the abyss to look for warships from the famed Battle of Midway.

The grid-by-grid made research around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands lasted for weeks and underwater search vessel finally found the wreckage of a giant warship, then identified as Japanese Aircraft Carrier Kaga which sunk during World War-II.

Deep-Sea explorers focus on the warship wreckages that was sunk during WW-II, especially at the positions of the sea battles occurred.

The Battle of Midway, which took place six months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and left more than 2,000 Japanese and 300 Americans dead.

The attack from the Japanese Imperial Navy was meant to be a surprise, a strike that would give Japan a strategic advantage in the Pacific. It was thwarted when U.S. analysts decoded Japanese messages and baited their enemy into revealing its plan.

As Japanese aircrafts started bombing the military installation at Midway Atoll, a tiny group of islands about 1,300 miles (2,090 kilometres) northwest of Honolulu, U.S. forces were already on their way to intercept Japan’s fleet. U.S. planes sank four of Japan’s aircraft carriers and a cruiser and downed dozens of its fighter planes. The battle resulted in Japan’s ultimate defeat.

Aircraft Carrier Kaga:

Kaga (加賀) was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and was named after the former Kaga Province in present-day Ishikawa Prefecture. Originally intended to be one of two Tosa-class battleships, Kaga was converted under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty to an aircraft carrier as the replacement for the battlecruiser Amagi, which had been damaged during the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Kaga was rebuilt in 1933–35, increasing her top speed, improving her exhaust systems, and adapting her flight decks to more modern, heavier aircraft.

After serving for Imperial Japanese Navy at critical missions and battles, during the Battle of Midway at WW-II, she was hit by U.S. aircrafts and got big explosions and fires. She was sunk with other three IJN carriers during the battle with her crew more than 800 people.