Like someone who has found a van Gogh at a garage sale, a research team on a routine dive near Pearl Harbor has uncovered a Japanese midget submarine that provides physical proof that submarines tried to infiltrate the harbor before the air attack of Dec. 7, 1941.

Six scientists in two deep-dive submersibles run by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory were engaged in the last exercise of the last training day of the year on Wednesday when they spotted the 78.5-foot, two-man submarine.

Some historians have long held that the destroyer Ward sank a Japanese submarine near Pearl Harbor about an hour before Japanese planes bombed the American fleet, but until now there was no proof.

The submarine is in excellent condition, said the research laboratory's acting director, John Wiltshire. It is in 1,200 feet of water three or four miles south of the harbor, torpedoes still in their houses, a hole in the conning tower. The remains of the two crewmen are believed to be inside.