Bungo Channel

Strait between Shikoku and Kyūshū, Japan

32°54′32″N 132°15′00″E / 32.909°N 132.25°E / 32.909; 132.25TypestraitBasin countriesJapanSettlementsŌita, Uwajima, Seiyo, SukumoReferencesBungo Strait: Japan National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Bethesda, MD, USA

The Bungo Channel (豊後水道, Bungo-suidō^[1]) is a strait separating the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku. It connects the Philippine Sea and the Seto Inland Sea on the western end of Shikoku.^[2] The narrowest part of this channel is the Hōyo Strait.

In the English-speaking world, the Bungo Strait is most known as a setting in the 1958 World War II submarine film Run Silent, Run Deep, based upon the best-selling 1955 novel by then-Commander Edward L. Beach Jr.^[3] On 9 November 1944, the USS Archerfish (SS-311) sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano, just nine hours into its maiden voyage in the Bungo strait. Shinano had been built in secret after being converted to a carrier, from a battleship of the Yamato class.

Notes

^ Teikoku's Complete Atlas of Japan, Teikoku-Shoin Co., Ltd., Tokyo, ISBN 4-8071-0004-1
^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Bungo Kaikyō" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 91.
^ Sheffield, Richard. (2009). Subs on the Hunt: 40 of the Greatest WWII Submarine War Patrols, p. 24, at Google Books; Leeman, Sergio and Robert Wise. (1995). Robert Wise on his Films: from Editing Room to Director's Chair, p. 145.

References

Leeman, Sergio and Robert Wise. (1995). Robert Wise on his Films: from Editing Room to Director's Chair. Los Angeles: Silman-James. ISBN 9781879505247; OCLC 243829638
Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128
Sheffield, Richard. (2009). Subs on the Hunt: 40 of the Greatest WWII Submarine War Patrols. Atlanta: Fox Publishing. ISBN 9781442169388; OCLC 652102659