The IJN's top brass were now convinced, but the development

of submarines as mother-ships would have to be accelerated.

Within a couple of months the midget submarines had been
integrated into specially modified C-Type cruiser submarines.
Although the C-Type was quite large, the midget submarine
itself was over 20m long so each parent submarine could only
carry a single Ko-hyoteki on the aft casing. The Ko-hyoteki was
mounted on a cradle facing aft with the rudder and hydroplanes
secured to stop them moving as the submarine passed through
the water. In a particularly clever trick that is still rare even
today, the midget submarines were fitted with a hatch in the
bottom which allowed them to mate with a similar hatch on the
top of the submarine. This allowed the submarine crew to enter
the midget submarine whilst submerged and greatly eased
maintenance and readiness whilst also allowing the midget
submarines to be released underwater to preserve stealth. The
benefit of this arrangement on operational efficiency cannot be
underestimated. More Ko-hyoteki had by now joined the first
two in service and five, together with their mother submarines,
were available for the attack on Pearl Harbor.