I've done a bunch more reading about the historical I-400-class submarines since I wrote Taken, and one of the things I've learned is that "Sentoku-class" is incorrect. Sentoku was not, as I then thought, an alternate name for the class; rather, it's a contraction of a Japanese phrase, sensuikan tokugata, meaning "special type submarine".

In the context of World War II, sentoku was the internal code for "the submarines for those raids on the American mainland we're going to get around to doing one of these days," and of the squadron (formally Submarine Squadron #1) constituted of them. As such, it includes not only the three I-400-class boats, but also the slightly smaller Type AM subs, I-13 and I-14, which were also built for that (never-carried-out) operation. Impressively large in their own right (373 feet long to the I-400 class's 400, or just about the same length as an American Fletcher-class destroyer), the Type AM boats looked very similar to the I-400s and could carry two Seiran attack aircraft to the larger subs' three.

I'm leaving it in the story, because Corwin at that moment doesn't know any more about WWII submarines than I did when I wrote that scene. Iona presumably had to explain it to him at some later point. :)

Further reading:

Geoghegan, John J., Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II (New York: Broadway Books, 2013).

A narrative history of the sentoku project, and also as close to an English-language biography of I-401's captain, Lt. Cdr. Nobukiyo Nambu (no relation to General Kijirō Nambu, the firearms designer), as is likely to be produced. Excellent reading, but frustratingly poor photographic reproduction. In print.

Sakaida, Henry, Gary Nila, and Koji Takaki, I-400: Japan's Secret Aircraft-Carrying Submarine (Crowborough, England: Hikoki Publications, 2006).

On the other hand, this one is full of photographs and diagrams, not only of the submarines (primarily the class boat, I-400, herself), but also of the Seiran. The only really disappointing thing about it to me is that, being primarily about I-400, it doesn't have much information or any photos of the unique features of I-401, which was the sentoku squadron flagship. Out of print, but pretty easy to find.

--G.
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