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 tender Karasaki
At the end of 1904, "Karasaki Maru" was sent to the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal for conversion into a submarine tender. She was officially commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy on 4 July 1905. On 8 March 1906, she was renamed "Karasaki", and was officially re-designated as a torpedo boat tender. In August 1912, the Imperial Japanese Navy abolished the torpedo boat tender classification, and "Karasaki" was re-designated as a second-class "kaibokan". However, the designation of torpedo boat tender was revived in April 1920. From 1924, "Karasaki" was then assigned to the submarine training school at Kure Naval District, and from 1 December 1924, was again officially designated as a submarine tender.