SENSUIKAN!

© 2001-2002 Bob Hackett & Sander Kingsepp

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25 May 1944:
The I-361 is completed at the Kure Navy Yard as a Type D1 "Tei-gata" transport submarine, commissioned in the IJN and based in the Yokosuka Naval District. The D1's have no torpedo tubes.

15 August 1944:
Assigned to Rear Admiral Owada Noboru's (former CO of YAMASHIRO) SubRon 7 (transports).

23 August 1944:
Departs Yokosuka on her first supply mission to Wake Island.

17 September 1944:
Arrives at Yokosuka.

17 October 1944:
The I-361 departs on her second supply mission to Wake Island.

9 November 1944:
Arrives at Yokosuka.

1 January 1945:
The I-361 is in SubRon 7 with the I-362, -363, -366, -367, -368, -368, -370 and the I-371.

9 January 1945:
Departs Yokosuka on her third supply mission to Wake Island.

7 February 1945:
Returns to Yokosuka. The I-361's deck gun and Daihatsu landing craft fittings are removed and she is converted to carry five "Kaiten" human-torpedoes.

20 March 1945:
SubRon 7 is deactivated. The I-361 is reassigned to SubDiv 15, Sixth Fleet.

26 March 1945: American Operation "Iceberg" - The Invasion of Okinawa:
The 77th Infantry Infantry Division lands on the Kerama Islands and by 29 March captures advance bases and anchorages. On 1 April, Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Raymond A. Spruance's Fifth Fleet, including more than 40 aircraft carriers, 18 battleships, 200 destroyers and over 1,000 support ships surround Okinawa. Lt Gen Simon B. Buckner Jr's Tenth Army (7th, 77th, 96th Infantry, 2nd, 6th Marine divisions) makes amphibious landings and takes the island from Lt Gen Ushijima Mitsuru's 32nd Army.

24 May 1945: The Ninth Kaiten Mission:
The I-361, under Lt Matsuura Shoji, is in the "Todoroki" (thunderclap) group with the I-36, -165 and the I-363. She departs Hikari with five kaitens aboard for an area SE of Okinawa.

28 May 1945:
The I-361 is detected by an American minesweeper. The minesweeper alerts the nearby Task Unit 32.1.1's USS ANZIO (CVE-57) and her four screening destroyer escorts of a possible Japanese submarine in the area. The ANZIO heads for the contact's last reported position and launches a series of searches by Composite Wing VC-13's aircraft.

31 May 1945:
400 miles SE of Okinawa. At 0436, the radar operator of Lt (j.g.) S. S. Stovall's Grumman TBM-3E "Avenger" torpedo-bomber picks up a contact. Stovall drops out of the cloud cover and spots a submarine on the pre-dawn surface at about 6,000 yards. He fires four 5-inch rockets at the submarine and thinks he gets two hits.

Lt Matsuura crash-dives, but Stovall drops sonobouys and a Mark 24 "Fido" acoustic tracking torpedo that homes in on the big Type D1's propeller sounds and explodes. Fifteen miles away, the crew of the approaching USS OLIVER MITCHELL (DE-417) feels a heavy underwater shock. When the MITCHELL and the TABBERER (DE-418) arrive on the scene they find a heavy oil slick, bits of deck planking and other debris. The I-361 sinks at 20-22N, 134-09E with all 76 crewmen and five kaiten pilots.

25 June 1945:
Presumed lost SE of Okinawa.

10 August 1945:
Removed from the Navy List.

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Author's Note: Special thanks for help in preparing this TROM go to Dr. Higuchi Tatsuhiro of Japan.
– Bob Hackett

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