American submarines achieved the strangulation of Japanese commerce which Germany’s U-boats had failed to impose on Britain. Seldom in history has such a small force—16,000 men, 1.6 percent of the sea service’s strength, with never more than 50 boats deployed—gained such decisive results. American submarines were responsible for 55 percent of all Japan’s wartime shipping losses, 1,300 vessels totalling over 6 million tons; their destructive achievement climaxed in October 1944, when they sank 322,265 tons of shipping. Thereafter, Japanese losses diminished only because they had little cargo
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