Japanese submarine I-174

On the day of her commissioning, I-74 was attached to the Kure Naval District and assigned to Submarine Division 11[4][5] in Submarine Squadron 2 in the 2nd Fleet, a component of the Combined Fleet.[4] On 15 November 1939, her division was transferred to Submarine Squadron 3, also in the 2nd Fleet.[4] I-74 departed Okinawa on 27 March 1940 in company with the submarines I-68, I-69, I-70, I-73, and I-75 for a training cruise in Chinese waters, completing it when the six submarines arrived at Takao, Formosa, on 2 April 1940.[4][6][7][8][9][10] On 11 October 1940, I-68 was one of 98 Imperial Japanese Navy ships that gathered along with more than 500 aircraft on the Japanese coast at Yokohama Bay for an Imperial fleet review — the largest fleet review in Japanese history — in honor of the 2,600th anniversary of the enthronement of the Emperor Jimmu, Japan's legendary first emperor.[4][11][12] On 15 November 1940, Submarine Squadron 3 was reassigned to the 6th Fleet, a component of the Combined Fleet.[4]

On 11 November 1941, the 6th Fleet's commander, Vice Admiral Mitsumi Shimizu, held a meeting with the commanding officers of the submarines of Submarine Squadron 3 aboard his flagship, the light cruiser Katori, and his chief of staff briefed them on plans for Operation Z, the upcoming surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.[5] The attack would begin the Pacific campaign and bring Japan and the United States into World War II.

As Japanese military forces began to deploy for the opening Japanese offensive of the war, I-74 departed Saeki Bay on the coast of Kyushu on 11 November 1941 in company with I-75 bound for Kwajalein Atoll, which the two submarines reached on 20 November 1941.[4][5][10] Assigned to support Operation Z, I-74 got underway from Kwajalein on 23 November 1941 with the commander of Submarine Division 11 embarked and set course for the Hawaiian Islands.[4][5] While she was en route, she received the message "Climb Mount Niitaka 1208" (Japanese: Niitakayama nobore 1208) from the Combined Fleet on 2 December 1941, indicating that war with the Allies would commence on 8 December 1941 Japan time, which was on 7 December 1941 on the other side of the International Date Line in Hawaii.[5] She arrived south of Oahu on 4 December 1941.[5]

When the attack on Pearl Harbor took place on the morning of 7 December 1941, the submarines of Submarine Squadron 3 were deployed south of Oahu, with I-74 assigned lifeguard duty south of Niihau.[5] Japanese pilots unable to return to their aircraft carriers after the attack due to injury, damage, or lack of fuel were instructed to land their aircraft on Niihau, from which I-74 would recover them.[13][14][15] By the time two damaged Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero (Allied reporting name "Zeke") fighters — one each from the aircraft carriers Hiryū and Sōryū — arrived over Niihau on 7 December, however, I-74 already had received orders to conclude her lifeguard duties and had departed the area.[13][14] The Sōryū pilot opted to commit suicide by diving his plane into the sea,[15][16] but the Hiryū pilot crash-landed on Niihau and terrorized the island's population — in what became known as the Niihau Incident — until he was killed on 13 December 1941.[13][15][17]

I-74 departed the Hawaiian Islands on 17 December 1941 and made for Kingman Reef in the northern Line Islands to investigate a reported U.S. naval base there.[5] She reconnoitered Kingman Reef from 23 to 25 December 1941,[5] but found no sign of a base. She then proceeded to Kwajalein, which she reached on 31 December 1941.[4][5]

I-174 completed eight war patrols during the Pacific War. She attacked Convoy GP55 on 16 June 1943. During her ninth war patrol, she was sunk near Truk on 12 April 1944 by a United States Navy B-24 Liberator patrol aircraft from VB-108.

• Bagnasco, Erminio (1977). Submarines of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-962-6.
• Cappellino, Richard J., "Hawaiian Heroes: America′s First Battle of the Pacific War," Society for Military History 2013 Conference, March 15, 2013.
• Carpenter, Dorr B. & Polmar, Norman (1986). Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1904–1945. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-396-6.
• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Hackett, Bob & Kingsepp, Sander (2001). "HIJMS Submarine I-174: Tabular Record of Movement". Combinedfleet.com.
• Polmar, Norman. Aircraft Carriers A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events, Volume I 1909–1945. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, Inc., 2006. ISBN 1-57488-664-9.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Stevens, David (1993). "I-174 : The Last Japanese Submarine off Australia". Journal of the Australian War Memorial. Canberra: Australian War Memorial (22). ISSN 0729-6274.