America’s first Japanese POW in World War II was a hapless minisub commander who got lost!

>Near Bellows Field, Best looked down and spotted what looked like a sampan with a little deckhouse in the surf’s edge. It was actually a Japanese minisub, launched early on the morning of December 7 from the fleet submarine *I-24I. The minisub’s commander, Ensign [Kazuo Sakamaki](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/POW_Kazuo_Sakamaki.jpg), had gotten lost before he could launch his boat’s two torpedoes at a U.S. warship. He had inadvertently beached his sub, forcing the crew of three to swim for shore. His two enlisted men drowned, but Sakamaki was captured, becoming America’s first Japanese prisoner of war. _______________________ **Source:** Moore, Stephen L. “I War Really Upset.” *Pacific Payback: The Carrier Aviators Who Avenged Pearl Harbor at the Battle of Midway*. NAL Caliber, 2014. 27-8. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Cohen, Stan, *East Wind Rain. A Pictorial History of the Pearl Harbor Attack*. Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1994, 62-63. _______________________ **Further Reading:** [Kazuo Sakamaki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Sakamaki) _______________________ **If you enjoy this type of content, please consider donating to my [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/HistoryLockeBox)!**