I-362 was laid down on 17 March 1943 by Mitsubishi at Kobe, Japan, with the name Submarine No. 5462.^[2] She was renamed I-362 on 20 October 1943 and provisionally attached to the Yokosuka Naval District that day.^[2] She was launched on 29 November 1943 and was attached to the Kure Naval District on 23 April 1944.^[2] She was completed and commissioned on 23 May 1944.^[2]

Upon commissioning, I-362 again was attached to the Yokosuka Naval District and was assigned to Submarine Squadron 11 for workups.^[2] With her workups complete, she was reassigned to Submarine Squadron 7 on 15 August 1944.^[2]

Transport missions edit

On 21 August 1944, I-362 departed Yokosuka bound for Nauru on her first transport mission.^[2] She arrived at Nauru on 14 September 1944, loaded 22 tons of ammunition and embarked 85 passengers, and got back underway the same day.^[2] She proceeded to Truk, which she reached on 21 September 1944.^[2] She unloaded her cargo and disembarked her passengers, then took aboard 83 Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service personnel and departed on 22 September 1944.^[2] She returned to Yokosuka on 3 October 1944.^[2]

I-362 got underway from Yokosuka on 24 October 1944 for her second transport voyage, this time setting course for Marcus Island, which she reached on 30 October 1944.^[2] After unloading supplies, she left the same day bound for Yokosuka, where she arrived on 6 November 1944.^[2] She then began an overhaul.^[2]

With the overhaul complete, I-362 put to sea from Yokosuka on 1 January 1945 for her third supply voyage.^[2] She was scheduled to call at Truk, then proceed to Meleyon Island at Woleai in the Caroline Islands, where she was scheduled to arrive on 21 January 1945.^[2]

Loss edit

On 13 January 1945, the United States Navy destroyer escort USS Fleming (DE-32) was in the eastern Caroline Islands as one of two escorts for two merchant tankers making a voyage from Ulithi Atoll to Eniwetok when she established radar contact on an unidentified vessel at a range of 14,000 yards (12,800 m).^[2] Fleming closed the range and challenged the vessel at a range of 4,000 yards (3,700 m), but the vessel did not reply.^[2] Fleming continued to close, and lost radar contact at a range of 1,900 yards (1,700 m), but then immediately acquired a sonar contact, suggesting that the vessel was a submarine that had submerged.^[2] Closing to 1,000 yards (914 m), Fleming illuminated the area in the direction of the contact with a searchlight, but her crew saw nothing on the surface.^[2] She then dropped a pattern of depth charges, followed by four Hedgehog attacks — each of 24 projectiles — against the submarine.^[2] Her last Hedgehog attack was just after midnight on 14 January 1945, and resulted in three underwater explosions followed by a deep, rumbling explosion that disabled Fleming′s sound gear.^[2] Fleming′s crew then observed debris and an oil slick on the surface, marking the sinking of the submarine with the loss of all hands at 12°08′N 154°27′E / 12.133°N 154.450°E / 12.133; 154.450 (I-362).^[2]

The submarine Fleming sank probably was I-362.^[2] On 15 March 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy declared I-362 to be presumed lost with all hands off the Caroline Islands.^[2] She was stricken from the Navy list on 10 April 1945.^[2]

• Hackett, Bob & Kingsepp, Sander. IJN Submarine I-362: Tabular Record of Movement. Retrieved on September 17, 2020.