Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Foreign News: Human Torpedoes''
A naval torpedo is a little submarine, driven by compressed air and steered by a gyroscopic brain. The brain can only keep the torpedo on its course, cannot swerve it to strike a ship whose captain has seen the white plume of the torpedo's compressed air wake and swerved his course to avoid the deadly charge. Last week the Imperial Japanese Navy, tired of wasting torpedoes which miss their mark and cost more than $5,000 each, sent out a quiet request for volunteers to man a new type of "human torpedo."
In Japan's next...
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