Twenty-four sunken submarines, probably belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy of World War II, were found at the bottom of the sea near the Goto island chain in Nagasaki Prefecture.
The Japanese coast guard said, citing records from the time that the submarines they would be herded into the area by US forces after the victory.
The contours of the submarine 24 were noted in July by coast guard researchers during a geographic study off the island chain from the Kaiyo underwater research vessel.
They were all about 200 meters deep 35 kilometers east-southeast of the island of Fukuejima, at the southern end of the range.
A sonar device has confirmed the contours of submarines in an area that extends for eight square kilometers.
The largest vessel is approximately 120 meters long, 15 meters wide and 10 meters high. Based on historical information it should be the I-402, an aircraft carrier submarine built in July 1945 to attack the American continent. Equipped with three attack seaplanes, the I-402 submarine was the largest of its time.
