Awa Maru (1943)
 Awa Maru | |
| Career (Japan) | ![Civil naval ensign ([Hinmaru])](/File:Flag_of_Japan.svg){kind=small} |
|---|---|
| Name: | Awa Maru |
| Operator: | Nippon Yusen (NYK) |
| Builder: | Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Nagasaki, Japan |
| Yard number: | 770 |
| Laid down: | 10 July 1941 |
| Launched: | 24 August 1942 |
| Completed: | 5 March 1943 |
| In service: | 1943 |
| Out of service: | 1 April 1945 |
| Fate: | lost in war |
| Status: | torpedoed and sunk by USS Queenfish |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 11,249 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length: | 153 m (502 ft) |
| Beam: | 20 m (66 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 diesels, twin screws |
| Speed: | 17 knots |
| Notes: | Steel construction |
The Awa Maru (阿波丸) was a Japanese ocean liner owned by Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The ship was built in 1941-1943 by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. at Nagasaki, Japan. The vessel's pre-war design anticipated passenger service; but when work was completed, the onset of war had created somewhat different priorities.
The ship's name comes in part from the ancient province of Awa on the island of eastern Shikoku in the modern prefecture of Tokoshima.[1] This mid-century Awa Maru was the second NYK vessel to bear this name. A turn-of-the-century, 6,309 ton Awa Maru was completed in 1899; and she was taken out of service in 1930.[2]
History
The ship was built by Mitsubishi at Nagasaki on the southern island of Kyushu. The keel was laid down in the summer of 1941 (July 10, 1941). The Awa Maru was launched on August 24, 1942; and she was completed March 5, 1943.[3]
Pacific War
The Awa Maru was requisitioned and refitted for auxiliary use by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
In 1945 the Awa Maru was employed as a Red Cross relief ship, carrying vital supplies to American and Allied POWs in Japanese custody. Under the Relief for POWs agreement, she was supposed to be given safe passage by Allied forces, and Allied commanders issued orders to that effect.
Having delivered her supplies, Awa Maru took on several hundred stranded merchant marine officers, military personnel, diplomats and civilians at Singapore.[4] In addition, there have been stories that the ship carried approximately $5 billion in treasure—40 metric tons of gold, 12 metric tons of platinum, and 150,000 carets of diamonds and other strategic materials.[5] Less dramatic and more credible sources identify the likely cargo as nickel and rubber.[6]
The ship departed Singapore on March 28, but on April 1 was intercepted late at night in the Taiwan Strait by the American submarine USS Queenfish, which mistook her for a destroyer.
The torpedoes of the Queenfish' sank the ship. Only one of the 2,003 passengers and crew survived.
There are various theories regarding the disappearance of a number of Peking Man fossils during World War II; one such theory is that the bones sank with the Awa Maru in 1945.[7]
See also
Notes
- ↑ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1935). The Nomeclature of the N.Y.K. Fleet, pp. 8, 80.
- ↑ Haworth, R.B. Miramar Ship Index: ID #4004181
- ↑ Haworth, R.B. Miramar Ship Index: ID #4049894.
- ↑ Sasgen, Peter T. (2005). Red Scorpion: The War Patrols of the USS Rasher, p. 438.
- ↑ Seagrave, Sterling et al (2003). Gold warriors, p. 203.
- ↑ Gibney, Frank et al. Sensō: the Japanese remember the Pacific War : letters to the editor of "Asahi Shimbun," p. 115.
- ↑ "Sinking and salvage of the Awa Maru" (PDF). http://www.nsa.gov/public/pdf/sinkingawa_maru.pdf.
References
- Dingman, Roger. (1997). Ghost of War: The Sinking of the Awa Maru and Japanese-American Relations, 1945-1995. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. 10-ISBN 1-557-50159-9; 13-ISBN 978-1-557-50159-2; OCLC 37315278
- Gibney, Frank and Beth Cary. (2006). Sensō: the Japanese remember the Pacific War : letters to the editor of Asahi Shimbun. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. 10-ISBN 0-765-61643-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-765-61643-2; OCLC 63245677
- Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1935). The Nomeclature of the N.Y.K. Fleet. Tokyo: Nippon Yusen Kaisha. OCLC 27933596
- Seagrave, Sterling and Peggy Seagrave. (2003). Gold warriors: America's secret recovery of Yamashita's gold. London: Verso. 10-ISBN 1-859-84542-8; 13-ISBN 978-1-859-84542-4; OCLC 54612143
- Sasgen, Peter T. (2005). Red Scorpion: The War Patrols of the USS Rasher. New York: Simon and Schuster. 10-ISBN 0-743-48910-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-743-48910-2
- Tate, E. Mowbray. (1986). Transpacific steam: the story of steam navigation from the Pacific Coast of North America to the Far East and the Antipodes, 1867-1941. New York: Cornwall Books. 10-ISBN 0845347926; 13-ISBN 9780845347928; OCLC 12370774
- U.S. Bureau of Manufactures, Bureau of Foreign Commerce. (1905). Monthly consular and trade reports (1854-1903). Washington, D.C.: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office. OCLC 13504256
- U.S. Department of State. (1968). Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776-1949. Washington: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office. OCLC 6940
External links
- US Department of State: "Agreement and agreed terms of understanding signed at Tokyo April 14, 1949."
- US National Security Agency (NSA): "Sinking and salvage of the Awa Maru," NSA declassified document.
