Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy
The IJN submarine arm did have a number of notable successes against American warships, however. During the Battle of Midway, administered the final "coup de grace" that sank the fleet carrier , as well as sinking the destroyer . A few months later, on September 15, 1942, with a single salvo of torpedoes, Japanese submarine sank the fleet carrier and damaged both the battleship and the destroyer . On November 13, 1942, the submarine torpedoed and sank the anti-aircraft cruiser , and a year later on November 23, 1943 the submarine torpedoed and sank the escort carrier , both with heavy loss of life. The had the distinction of both severely damaging the heavy cruiser , knocking her out of the war for a year, on October 20, 1942, and of also sinking (the only American submarine to be sunk by a Japanese submarine in the entire war) on November 16, 1943.
Japanese submarine I-15
I-15 was a Japanese B1 type submarine. She was completed at Kure Navy Yard on September 30, 1940, whereupon she entered into service with the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her first and only commanding officer was Commander Nobuo Ishikawa. "I-15" operated off the north coast of Oahu during the raid on Pearl Harbor. Her second wartime patrol, in May and June 1942, took her to the Aleutians, where she conducted reconnaissance of several islands. "I-15"s third and final patrol took place from August to November 1942, when she operated in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, supporting the Japanese efforts to hold Guadalcanal. One source (Morison) suggests that "I-15" hit the battleship with a torpedo on September 15, 1942. More recent authorities (Hackett & Kingsepp) maintain that the torpedo came from another submarine operating in the area, , which was also responsible for the sinking of , which "I-15" duly observed and reported. On November 10, 1942, a U.S. ex-destroyer (modified to a fast minesweeper), , sank "I-15" at Cape Recherche, San Cristóbal, with all hands lost.
Commander Ishikawa was promoted to the rank of Captain posthumously. On December 14, 1942, more than one month after "I-15" was sunk, sank an unknown submarine which it misidentified as the "I-15".