[Torplexed]

The ironic thing is one of the most devasting losses the Japanese suffered from US submarines wasn't a battleship or an aircraft carrier. It was the lowly 14,500 tontransport Taiyo Maru sunk on May 8th 1942 by the submarine Grenadier. Post-war examination of Japanese records showed Taiyo Maru to be more than just the ordinary transport; she was en route to the Netherland East Indies with a group of Japanese scientists, economists, oilmen and industrial experts bent on expediting the exploitation of the conquered territory. Their loss put a permanent crimp in Japan's efforts to extract oil from this area from which Japan never fully recovered.