The second I-24 was one of five Type C cruiser submarines of the C1 sub-class built for the Imperial Japanese Navy. During World War II, she operated as the mother ship for a midget submarine during the attack on Pearl Harbor and the attack on Sydney Harbour, supported Japanese forces during the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, and served in the Guadalcanal campaign, New Guinea campaign, and Aleutian Islands campaign. She was sunk in June 1943.

The Cruiser submarine Type-C was one of the first classes of submarine in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) to serve during the Second World War. Type-C submarines were better armed than the Type-A and Type-B. The Type-Cs were also utilized as Kō-hyōteki or Kaiten mother ships, for this reason they were not equipped with aviation facilities.