USS Tang, a 1525-ton Balao class submarine, was built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California. Commissioned in October 1943, she deployed to Hawaii in December 1943 to begin an intense and eventful combat career under the leadership of Commander Richard H. O'Kane. Tang's first war patrol, conducted in the central Pacific during January and February 1944, removed five ships from Japan's logistics system. A second patrol, into the Palaus, resulted in no direct losses to the enemy, but was very important in another way. In three days of lifeguard duty during U.S. aircraft carrier raids on the Japanese base at Truk, Tang rescued 22 downed Navy aviators, a "score" of a positive sort that was unsurpassed until very late in the Pacific War.

In June and July 1944, Tang made a very productive patrol into the East China Sea area, sinking ten ships in a series of daring attacks. The next war patrol, her fourth, was in Japanese home waters, where her torpedoes sank at least two more enemy ships during August. Late in September, Tang departed Pearl Harbor to begin her fifth patrol. Operating in the vicinity of the Formosa Strait, she struck a convoy on 10-11 October, sinking two ships. Other convoys were the targets of night surface attacks on the 23rd and 24th, producing five more sinkings. However, Tang's last torpedo made a circular run that the submarine could not evade. She was hit aft and quickly sank in relatively shallow water off the China coast. Nine of her crew, including Commander O'Kane, survived the accident and were taken prisoner.

Tang was awarded two Presidential Unit Citations for her exploits, which included officially recognized sinkings of 24 Japanese ships, totalling nearly 94,000 tons. Among U.S. Pacific War submarines, she thus had the second highest score in terms of numbers and the fourth largest based on tonnage calculations.