TOKYO — Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen says he’s found a massive Japanese World War II battleship off the Philippines near where it sank over 70 years ago.

The apparent discovery of the wreckage of the Musashi, one of the largest battleships in history, comes as the world marks the 70th anniversary of the war’s end.

Allen’s publicity agency Edelman said in a statement Wednesday that Allen and his research team aboard his superyacht M/Y Octopus found the ship over the weekend, more than eight years after their search began.

Allen called the Musashi an “engineering marvel,” saying that as an engineer at heart he appreciated its technology and construction.

The Musashi sank in October 1944 in the Sibuyan Sea during the battle of Leyte, losing half its 2,400 crew members.


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