The Japanese took over several ex-German and Italian submarines in the later part of the war. Two Type IXC boats were transferred to Japan by the Germans in exchange for strategic materials such as rubber, tin and quinine that were otherwise unavailable to the Germans. The first of these boats made it to Kure under a German crew where it was commissioned in the IJN as the RO-500. The Japanese evaluated the boat, but decided it was too complex to copy. It was used for training by the Japanese. The second Type IXC boat, the RO-501, departed Kiel for Japan under a Japanese crew, but was lost in the Atlantic Narrows to aircraft from the ASW escort carrier USS BOGUE.
Three other large German Type IX-D and X-B boats used by the Germans in the strategic materials-weapons exchange trade were interned by the Japanese after the fall of Nazi Germany, but not used operationally. Two Italian ocean-going converted supply boats were taken over by the Germans in Southeast Asia after the fall of Fascist Italy. After the defeat of Germany, they were interned by the Japanese, but also not used operationally. At war's end, the Allies scuttled all of the captured foreign submarines.
