An Immersive Digital Commemoration of the Japanese Submarine I-124 Sunk in 1942 outside Darwin Harbor, Australia

Abstract

The Japanese submarine I-124 was sunk in a military engagement with Allied forces outside Darwin Harbor, Australia, with 80 submariners aboard on 20 January 1942. To mark the 80th anniversary of this historic event and complement more traditional commemorative activities, a virtual-reality experience was created for general public engagement. The experience was based on a high-resolution multi-beam sonar survey completed in October 2021 by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and used an animation-based workflow to illustrate the survey of the submarine, the events of its sinking and the historical data used to digitally reconstruct it. The animation culminates in a virtual dive across its decks as they may have appeared in the years after the sinking. Future plans for the site include diver-based surveys for photogrammetric survey and management-based monitoring. The creation of the experience required an in-depth consideration of a wide range of stakeholder needs and Australian and Japanese cultural attitudes to commemoration of World War II casualties. We describe the technical and cultural challenges encountered throughout the project.