The boats had a diving depth of 60 m (197 ft)[1] For surface running, the submarines were powered by two 3,400-brake-horsepower (2,535 kW) diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft.

[4][5] On the day of her completion and commissioning, I-59 was attached to the Kure Naval District and assigned to Submarine Division 28.

[4] During 1934, I-59 returned to active service,[4][5] and on 15 November 1934 her division began another stint in Submarine Squadron 2 in the 2nd Fleet.

[5] Recommissioned by early 1937, I-59 put to sea from Sasebo with I-60 and I-63 on 27 March 1937 for a training cruise in the vicinity of Qingdao, China.

[5] On 13 January, I-59 parted company with I-60 and proceeded to a patrol area in the Indian Ocean off Christmas Island.

[5] On 25 January, she conducted a periscope reconnaissance of Sabang on the coast of Sumatra to ascertain whether any Allied warships were there.

[5] At 23:35 on 1 March 1942, she was west of Sumatra when she torpedoed the Dutch 1,035-gross register ton passenger ship SS Rooseboom, bound from Padang, Sumatra, to Colombo, Ceylon, carrying about 500 people — mostly British military personnel and a large number of civilians — fleeing British Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies as the Japanese advanced.

[16][17] Among those lost were British Army Brigadier Archibald Paris, Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Thorne, and Sergeant Percy Saunders,[18] the latter two notable athletes of the era.

[19] After the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, ordered Komatsu to interpose his submarines between the retreating Japanese fleet and the opposing United States Navy aircraft carriers,[19] the Japanese submarines, including I-159, began a gradual movement to the north-northwest, moving at 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph) by day and 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) after dark.

[5] In July 1945, the crews of I-156, I-157, I-158, I-159, and I-162 underwent training to launch kaiten during an anticipated Allied invasion of Japan.

[5] Due to the danger of Allied air attacks on Kure, I-159 moved to Maizuru on Honshu′s east coast in August 1945.

[5] On 6 August, she was assigned along with the submarines I-36, I-155, and I-156 to the Shinshu-tai ("Land of Gods Unit") kaiten group, scheduled to depart Japan in mid-August 1945 to conduct attacks on Allied ships.

[5] I-159 was still in port at Maizuru on 11 August 1945 when Iwo Jima-based United States Army Air Forces P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft strafed her, puncturing her main ballast tanks in three places.

[5] Later on 15 August 1945, I-159 was at Hirao when Emperor Hirohito announced in a radio broadcast that hostilities between Japan and the Allies had ceased.

[5] Misunderstanding him, the submarine crews continued to prepare for their Shinshu-tai sortie, and I-159 embarked two kaiten and their pilots.

[5] I-159 moved to Sasebo in October 1945[5] and was stripped of all useful equipment,[1] and the Japanese struck her from the Navy list on 30 November 1945.

[5] She was among a number of Japanese submarines scuttled by the United States Navy off the Goto Islands in Operation Road's End on 1 April 1946, the U.S. Navy submarine tender USS Nereus (AS-17) towing her to her scuttling site and sinking her with gunfire.