Sunken WWII Japanese battleship found by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen

(U.S. Navy)

This Sunday March 1, 2015, image provided by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen and captured with a high-definition camera mounted on an underwater probe, shows what Allen’s team believes is a wheel on a valve of a massive Japanese World War II battleship off the coast of the Philippines. In a statement Allen’s team says it found the battleship just off the Sibuyan Sea, using an autonomous underwater vehicle in its third dive after narrowing down the search area using detailed undersea topographical data and other locator devices. Japanese experts said that they were eager to study the images to try to confirm the ship’s identity. (AP Photo/Paul Allen) (The Associated Press)

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.