by a tremendous explosion. Her torpedoes had hit, and from the concussion it appeared that the ship had been carrying ammunition. Breaking up noises quickly followed the explosion. Former Japanese professional baseball player, Eiji Sawamura lost his life in the attack, together with some 300 other Japanese soldiers. Sea Devil leveled off at and rigged for depth charging. Twelve were counted; none was close. Escorts milled about overhead for the next 40 minutes; then the sound of screws faded out. Pinging was heard for a while longer, and distant depth charges were heard for several hours. After sinking Akikawa Maru and Hawaii Maru, Sea Devil continued to patrol the sea lanes to Kyūshū. On 4 December, she received a positive ship contact report from a China-based B-29 Superfortress, but the position was too distant. On 5 December, she sighted only two small fishing trawlers. Then, on the evening of 8 December, she made radar contact with four distant targets zigging on various courses toward Nagasaki. Sea Devil went to full power on four engines and began gaining slowly. At , the radar pips were estimated to be one battleship or aircraft carrier, two light cruisers, and four destroyers. Darkness and intermittent rain squalls interfered with visibility. By 00:00, 9 December, Sea Devil had gained a good position ahead of the nearest escort and off the port track of the largest pip. At 00:05, she began a submerged radar approach. At 00:17, she began tracking by sound, and, ten minutes later she fired four Mark-23 torpedoes at the target. Two hit. Poor visibility precluded a damage assessment. Sea Devil went deep and rigged for depth charging but, by 00:50, the sounds of searching surface ships faded out. At 01:07, the submarine surfaced and headed up the target's track. An hour later, she reversed her course and headed back to her patrol area. That evening sister ship confirmed Sea Devil’s hits, but was unable to provide a damage estimate. Later reports identified the damaged ship as the aircraft carrier Junyō, which was subsequently damaged further by submarine . Junyō remained in the repair yard through the end of the war. At mid-month, Sea Devil moved further south to patrol off Okinawa; and, on 29 December, she headed for Midway Island and Pearl Harbor. Third war patrol, February – April 1945 On 7 February 1945, Sea Devil cleared Pearl Harbor for her third