Photos and the story

I-21

Type	Submarine (SS)
Hull	I-21
Fate	Sunk. Type B submarine. On the patrol line off Oahu on 7 December 1941 and did not enter the harbor. Missing after 27 November 1943 near Tarawa. A plane from the escort carrier Chenango reported a submarine in that area on 29 November. That report is the usual identification, and it is not certain.

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

A boat of this type, not a photograph of this hull — No photograph of I-21 was found. A file titled Japanese Submarine I-21 shows a bow painted 3, and the 1930 photograph is the minelayer later numbered I-121. This is the photograph of I-19, a Type B submarine of the same class. It is not this boat. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

I-21 was a Type B submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy. On 7 December 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, she was on the patrol line off Oahu. She did not enter the harbor. She is missing after 27 November 1943 near Tarawa.

On 29 November a plane from the escort carrier Chenango reported a submarine in that area. That report is the usual identification of her loss, and it is not certain. Her fate is sunk.

The pictures on this page are the originals.