Submarine I-124Print Page

The monument commemorates the 75th anniversary of the sinking of Japanese Submarine I-124 which was sunk in the Beagle Gulf near Darwin in January 1942 and is in memory of the eighty men of the Japanese Imperial Navy who perished in the sinking. 

An additional plaque listing the names of the crew was added to the memorial on the 19th February 2022. 

The bombing of Darwin on Feb. 19, 1942, the first attack by Japanese forces on the Australian mainland, killed at least 250 people and destroyed 30 aircraft and nine ships.

The sinking of the Japanese submarine I-124 about a month before the air raid was also commemorated on Friday with the unveiling of a new plaque at the existing memorial site overlooking Casuarina Beach, near the location of the submarine's resting place on the seafloor.

The plaque lists the names of all 80 crew who died when the submarine was sunk around 95 kilometers off the Darwin coast while trying to torpedo a U.S. Navy fleet oiler during the war. They remain entombed in the submarine.

"By doing so, we give these men their names, and thus their basic identities back," said Yamagami. The envoy told reporters after offering flowers at the new plaque that he looked back on the "footprints of postwar reconciliation and peace" between Japan and Australia.

"All that once divided us has long since been replaced with true friendship. There is only understanding between the Australian and Japanese people, an understanding that cannot be shaken," said Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner.

The plaque, a joint effort of the Embassy of Japan, the Northern Territory government and the Australian-Japanese Association of the Northern Territory, joins at the site an existing memorial plaque and commemorative Pongamia tree, a healing plant native to both Japan and Australia, planted to promote peace between the two countries.
Kyodo News, 19 February 2022.

Location

Details

Dedication