depth charges exploded after she sank. At 13:32 the second and third torpedoes struck Yorktown on her starboard side below her bridge, and the fourth torpedo missed astern. After observing the torpedo hits, I-168 descended to and slowed to directly under Yorktown. American destroyers began a counterattack at 13:36, when a destroyer passed directly over I-168 and dropped two depth charges. The destroyers , , and dropped what I-168′s crew believed to be 60 depth charges before damaging I-168 at 15:30. A depth charge exploding near the bow put out the lights, causing I-168′s emergency lighting to come on; sprung both the outer and inner hatches of No. 1 torpedo tube, causing flooding in the forward torpedo room and maneuvering room; damaged the forward battery room; and reduced I-168′s depth to . Extensive damage to I-168′s battery cells prompted her crew to put on gas masks because of the danger of chlorine gas poisoning, and all unoccupied crewmen grabbed sacks of rice from forward storage and moved them astern to trim the submarine because of the flooding forward. With her batteries nearly exhausted, I-168 surfaced at 16:40, an hour before sunset, intending to fight it out on the surface if necessary. She sighted Gwin, Hughes, and Monaghan about away but they did not detect her, so she ran west on the surface at , the best speed she could make, to charge batteries and ventilate her interior spaces. Tanabe transmitted a report to Combined Fleet headquarters claiming to have sunk Yorktown. According to one source, two American destroyers spotted I-168 at a range of , and commenced firing at her from a range of about 30 minutes after sighting her; another source states that a single destroyer engaged her, closing to a range of and firing at her intermittently. After her crew completed emergency repairs to one of her electric motors, I-168 submerged and evaded the approaching destroyers. She surfaced again at 20:00, having survived attacks with 40 depth charges over the course of 13 hours. After conducting emergency repairs, I-168 limped back to Japan using only two engines, a journey of twelve days. Almost out of fuel, she arrived at Yokosuka, Japan, on 19 June 1942. After refueling, she proceeded to Kure, Japan, which she reached the same day. At Kure, a large crowd greeted her, music was played, and dignitaries made speeches. I-168 moved from Kure to Sasebo