The popular account of Pearl Harbor records that the attack

started at 0748hrs local time on 7th December 1941 when

hundreds of Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) aircraft appeared
over the anchorage and started their attacks. This simplistic
version of events suffices for school textbooks and Hollywood
movies but the military engagements actually started nearly five
hours earlier at 0357hrs. And these first encounters were not
against aircraft, but a midget submarine!

The Imperial Japanese Navy (IN) had reformed its pre-war

special units before entering the war. In regards to midget
submarines, Japan was at the cutting edge of technology with
only Italy having similar midget submarines at this time which
could be considered successful. Two experimental Ko-Hyoteki
(‘Target-A’, a code name to hide their use as offensive weapons)
midget submarines were ordered in 1939, based on the earlier
1930s design. These would be of a modified type that built on
the experience of the first model and was closer to something
that could be employed operationally.