Overview
IJN I-53 is documented as a ships with time-bounded service identities where renaming or reclassification occurred.
IJN I-153 is associated with Japan and Imperial Japanese Navy. It belonged to Kaidai IIIa, so the class page provides the shared design history while this page concentrates on the individual ship.
Construction and identity
The available construction record identifies IJN I-153 as laid down on 1924-04, launched on 1925-08-05, and completed on 1927-03.
The ship's documented identity includes alternate or later names I-53 and IJN I-53 and service with Imperial Japanese Navy.
Service history
Kaidai IIIa large fleet submarine later renumbered in 1942 as older I-boats were reassigned to the 150-series.
The ship's configuration should be interpreted through the documented class and the dates attached to this individual vessel; equipment should not be assumed to have remained unchanged throughout service.
Class context: Kaidai IIIa
Four large Japanese Kaidai IIIa fleet submarines completed from 1927 to 1928.
As a member of Kaidai IIIa, IJN I-153 shared the class's documented design framework and intended roles of Fleet submarine and Long range submarine. Individual refits, transfers, and wartime changes belong to this ship only when separately documented.
Later service and disposition
The recorded final status is unknown.
IJN I-153 matters as an individual career within Kaidai IIIa, allowing class-wide design history to be separated from this ship's own construction, identities, service, and fate.
Class relationship
This ship is recorded as a member of Kaidai IIIa. Shared design history belongs on the class page; this page concentrates on the individual hull where evidence is available.
Sources and further reading
- Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922–1946Conway Maritime Press
- Treaty Between the United States of America, the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan, Limiting Naval Armament ↗U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian · accessed 2026-09-18
- Kaidai 3a submarines (I53), 1927–1928 ↗Navypedia · accessed 2026-09-18