During World War II, while on a Yanagi mission between Japan and Germany carrying strategic raw materials and information, she was sunk by the British submarine HMS Taurus using Ultra intelligence.

[1] During early 1943, she took part in supply missions and the eventual evacuation of the garrison of Kiska in the Aleutian Islands.

I-34 loaded a cargo of raw rubber, tungsten, tin, quinine, medicinal opium and samples of Japanese weapons.

Unknown to Commander Irie or the crew, her movements were being tracked by Ultra intelligence, and a British submarine was sent to sink her.

She was spotted running on the surface in a rain squall by HMS Taurus (commanded by veteran Captain Mervyn R. G. "Dillinger" Wingfield, DSO, DSC), on 13 November 1943 in the Malacca Straits, 30 nautical miles (56 km) off the coast of Penang at 07:30.