I could have kicked myself -- and I might have done had I not been wearing flippers.

Below me lay a garden of colored coral, some moving gently in the current and populated by bright, darting fish. The diver waved his legs lazily and sank deeper before stopping to hover above a cavernous opening that was once a funnel on a military resupply ship.

As I peered down to watch him maneuver around the superstructure and a mast still standing more than 50 years after this Japanese vessel was sunk by torpedoes from a U.S. aircraft, a feeling of utter jealousy came over me.