Souvenir : Small lead model Japanese midget submarine

Waterline lead model of an Imperial Japanese midget submarine Type ‘A Kai 1’ (improved version 1). The model is 110 mm in length. Cast into the starboard (right) side of the model is the wording 'Made from Ballast Jap midget sub' and on the port (left) side is 'Sunk in Sydney Harbour May 31 1942'. The model has been cast from lead, into a two part mould, with the parting line running down the vertical centreline of the boat. On the lower surface is a small sink mark where the lead is not perfectly flush.

This is a souvenir model cast from the lead ballast of one of the two prototype submarines, both of which were recovered from Sydney harbour after their unsuccessful attack on the night of 31 May/1 June 1942. These models along with many other small souvenirs from the midget submarines were sold to raise funds for the RAN Relief Fund and King George's Fund For Sailors.

In 1943 a composite midget submarine made from parts of the two submarines recovered from Sydney Harbour were taken on a 4,000 kilometer tour to raise money for the war effort, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander John Sydney Bovrill, Royal Australian Navy. The tour visited Wagga, Benalla, Ballarat, across to Adelaide and along the Victorian coast to Melbourne then back to Sydney. Souvenirs and postcards of the submarines were sold along the way, and 'Periscope certificates' issued to those who had taken a submariner's view of the world. The tour was a huge success, the exhibit drawing vast crowds. In Wagga for example, a city with a wartime population of between 11 and 12,000, over 6,000 visited the submarine. At the close of the tour, the remainder of the souvenirs were passed on consignment in late April 1943 to the Australian War Memorial, which received '40,989 glass wool envelopes, 99,010 postcards (sold in sets of 9) and 565 dozen miniature lead sub models.' The glass wool had been used as insulation in the submarines. In a letter of 5 August 1943, Captain Gerard Muirhead-Gould noted '313 dozen lead subs and 25,000 postcards disposed of through Department of Information to USA for sale.'