[Donner]

Credit will never be given for these types of sinkings unfortunately. A true sinking is where a ship is a total loss, unrecoverable...an asset that is lost permanently.

In the endorsement of Wahoo's third patrol report dated February 12, 1943 (looking at a copy of it right now on my desk), Wahoo was given credit for sinking "1 destroyer (ASASHIO Class) - 1500 tons" But that determination was made with the best evidence at hand.

The destroyer Harusame was beached in Wewak Harbor, but she was not a 'total constructive loss' and therefore only officially heavily damaged in the view of the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee (JANAC) after the war. Sure, it was "their business" in salvaging Harusame, but it also made good sense. Why make the expenditure of building a brand new destroyer when one, albeit damaged, was so close at hand? The destroyer was effectively removed from the grand chessboard of the Pacific for a time, but she was not totally lost to the Japanese therefore no credit for a sinking was given.

There are many instances where JANAC denied credit for ships that were clearly seen to sink. Official Japanese records were consulted postwar and if a no mention of a sinking was recorded none was given to that submarine's scorecard. Sure, it's unfortunate that these brave men are not given their proper due, but they know what they did...and so do we after years of research.

But I see no change forthcoming to the official records 60+ years after the JANAC's findings. The cost and time to "double check" the JANAC's findings will never be authorized by the US government.