Whenever Akira Tsurukame traveled around the South Pacific region, he had thought of his father, Tsuruichi, and wondered how and where the chief engineer of an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine died during World War II.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2007/nn20070915f1a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='188'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Akira Tsurukame –

and Katja Boonstra (left), who lost their fathers during World War II, visit William King, the former skipper of the British submarine HMS Telemachus, at Oranmore Castle in Ireland in May 2004. PHOTO COURTESY OF AKIRA TSURUKAME

Four years ago, Tsurukame, 66, a business consultant who lives in a city near Los Angeles, conducted intensive research on his father's submarine, the I-166, and discovered that it sunk numerous Allied submarines, including the Dutch submarine Hr.Ms. K-XVI (K-16). He also learned that it was torpedoed in the Malacca Strait by British submarine HMS Telemachus in 1944.