Surfacing to Life

"It was hot territory, but where else would we want to go?"

            Only nine.

            Of its crew of 87 men, only nine survived the sinking of the submarine USS Tang. When they were rescued—by the Japanese—further horrors awaited them.

            In October 1944, the Tang was on its fifth patrol. Its commander Dick O'Kane, known as the underwater ace of aces, had volunteered for the most dangerous assignment possible, cruising the Formosa Strait between Formosa (present day Taiwan) and China. These narrow waters were heavily trafficked by Japanese convoys. O'Kane knew the hunting would be good.

            "We knew we were going into very dangerous waters," one crewman recalled. "It was hot territory, but where else would we want to go?"

            During its first four patrols under O'Kane's aggressive command, the Tang had proven itself the deadliest U.S. sub in the Pacific. It sank 33 enemy ships, more than any other in terms of numbers and tonnage.

            On its last patrol, the Tang sent eight Japanese tankers and freighters to the bottom. O'Kane had also spotted a distinctive vessel. It had a white hull and a red cross emblazoned on it—A hospital ship. Another officer suggested he fire on it, telling O'Kane it might be transporting as many as 10,000 Japanese soldiers.

            "We play by the rules," O'Kane replied.

            While serving as the executive officer on another sub, he was present on the bridge when it sank a Japanese transport, sending hundreds of Japanese troops into the water. His commanding officer gave orders to sink their lifeboats and then shoot survivors in the water. That wasn't O'Kane's kind of war.  

The Escape Trunk

            Now, after successfully firing 23 of his sub's 24 torpedoes, O'Kane sent the last one hurtling towards a crippled transport. Instead, it malfunctioned, making a 'circular run.' Despite frantic evasive maneuvers, it struck the Tang 20 seconds after being fired.

            The massive explosion killed half of the Tang's 87-member crew instantly. O'Kane and two other seamen scrambled to safety out of the bridge and into the water.

            The sub went down by the stern, but instead of sinking to the bottom, air trapped in the forward ballast tanks kept it suspended nearly vertically in the water, its bow bobbing a few feet above the surface.

            With the sub dangling, there was no way the survivors could use the escape trunk in the forward torpedo room. A sailor pulled a hydraulic lever flooding the tanks. Soon the sub settled 180 feet down on the sea bed.

            As the survivors fought their way to the torpedo room, the Japanese dropped depth charges, rattling the sub and causing a slow-burning fire. The air grew fouler by the minute.

            Each crewman had three options—Suffocate, escape, or shoot himself in the head. "There was no panic," recalled motor machinist mate Clayton Decker. "Everyone was calm."

            The escape trunk was the size of a phone booth. Here is how it worked: Several men would seal themselves inside and fill it with sea water until the water pressure in the trunk equaled the pressure outside. The first man out would release a buoy connected by a rope to the sub.

            Then each man would clamber into the freezing, pitch-black darkness and rise slowly hand-by-hand along the rope but not so quickly he would get the bends and die upon surfacing.

            Every crewman had a special undersea rescue device—a Momsen Lung—and wore it strapped to his chest. When a sailor exhaled into it, chemicals in the bag converted carbon dioxide into oxygen, allowing for a slow ascent.

            The first man out panicked. He got lost inside the superstructure of the sub, unable to find the exit. Those inside heard him hit the hull again and again before drowning. Other men panicked inside the escape trunk, refused to try to exit, and crawled into bunks to die.

            Of the 30 seamen still alive (many of whom were too injured to enter the escape trunk), only 13 left the sub. "You never let go [of the rope]," said Decker. "Many of the guys who didn’t make it didn’t get a hold of that line." Only five survived the ascent, one of whom reached the surface without using a Momsen Lung.

            After floating in the water for several hours, a Japanese ship picked up the nine survivors. At first, the Japanese thought they were German sailors. This ship happened to have picked up seamen from ships the Tang had sunk. The enraged survivors and the ship's crew tortured the Americans.

            "They kept us on this hot steel deck under a blazing sun for five days and five nights," said Decker. "We were a mass of blisters. Those Jap survivors would grab us by the hair and stick lit cigarettes up our noses. They just beat the shit out of us. No water, no food. We thought, this is the end."

"Torture Farm"

            The Tang's crew were sent to the Ofuna prison camp. Other POWs had nicknamed it the "Torture Farm." The Japanese said the sub's crew had killed civilians and refused to grant them POW status. As a result, they were given only half the usual food ration and isolated from other prisoners.

            Until they were liberated in August 1945, O'Kane and his men beaten regularly. "The guards would sneak in and whack you with a club when you were sound asleep," said Decker. "They didn't give a damn where they hit you. Sometimes they'd even hit you in the back of the head and knock you cold."

            Of all the crew, O'Kane suffered the most. When he was liberated, he was near death, weighed only 88 pounds, and was suffering from jaundice, beriberi, and dysentery. Doctors only gave him a 50/50 chance of surviving. Instead he lived to be 83 and died of pneumonia.

            "He was without a doubt the finest submarine skipper in the entire Navy," said Decker. He received the Medal of Honor and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

MORAL: Sometimes you have to give

 up the ship to sail again.

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