''Hawaii Maru'' was a 9,482-ton Japanese

troop transport A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...

during

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, which sank on 2 December 1944 with great loss of life. The ship was built in 1915 by the

Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation is the shipbuilding subsidiary of Kawasaki Heavy Industries. It produces primarily specialized commercial vessels, including LNG carriers, LPG carriers, container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers, as well as high speed passenger jetfoils. In ...

in Kobe for the Osaka Shosen Kaisha shipping company. It served as an ocean liner and sailed to

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, and

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. On 29 September 1941, ''Hawaii Maru'' was requisitioned by the Japanese Imperial Army as a troop transport-ship and was used as such during the invasion of the Philippines. In April 1943 the ship transported some 1,000

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

prisoners from

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

to Moji Port. Several Dutch soldiers died during the three-week journey. On 26 November 1943 ''Hawaii Maru'' again transported 1,230 Dutch and 150 British POWs from Singapore to Moji, and survived an attack of B-25 Mitchell bombers, which sank ''Hakone Maru''. On 27 April 1944, ''Hawaii Maru'' was hit by a torpedo fired by the American submarine , but stayed afloat. On 30 November 1944, ''Hawaii Maru'' sailed as a troop transport from Moji, Japan for Miri, Borneo via Manila in convoy MI-29. On 2 December 1944 around 04h00, the convoy was attacked by US Navy submarine in the East China Sea west of

Yakushima Island , native_name_link = , image_caption = Landsat image of Yakushima , image_size = , nickname = , location = East China Sea , coordinates = , map = Japan#Japan Kagoshima Prefecture , map_relief ...

(). ''Hawaii Maru'' was hit and sank quickly; 1,843 troops of the IJA 23rd Infantry Division, 60 other troops, 83 gunners and 148 crewmen were killed.

References

{{December 1944 shipwrecks World War II merchant ships of Japan Ships sunk by American submarines Maritime incidents in December 1944 Ships built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries Troop ships of Japan World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean 1915 ships Japanese hell ships

See also

References