Typhoon Marie, as known as the Tōya Maru Typhoon ( 洞爺丸台風) in Japan, was a

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

that hit Japan in September 1954. Marie did a great deal of damage to

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

, and the ''

Tōya Maru was a Japanese train ferry constructed by Japanese National Railways (JNR) which sank during Typhoon Marie, known locally as the Tōya Maru Typhoon, in the Tsugaru Strait between the Japanese islands of Hokkaidō and Honshū on September 26, ...

'' ( 洞爺丸) train ferry sank due to the high waves and windstorm caused by Marie. Because of it, JMA in Japan named the storm ''Tōya Maru Typhoon.''

Overview

On September 26, Typhoon Marie hit Japan. After passing

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

and Chugoku, Marie proceeded through the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

northeast at a tremendous speed and hit Hokkaido. Due to Marie, some Seikan ferries such as ''

'' that departed from Hakodate Port, suffered a gale and high waves. ''Tōya Maru'' sank, causing 1,139 people on it to die, and resulting in enormous damage. Toya-Maru_Disaster

Also, a large fire broke out in

Iwanai, Hokkaido is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. As of September 2016, the town has an estimated population of 13,210. The total area is 70.64 km2. History Iwanai is one of the oldest towns in the reg ...

, partly due to the effects of Marie. This fire was called ''Fire of Iwanai'' ( 岩内大火) in Japan.

Name

JMA named Marie, which caused major damage mainly in Hokkaido, as ''Tōya Maru Typhoon'', honouring the dead of the ''Tōya Maru''.

References

External links

洞爺丸台風
– JMA
洞爺丸台風
–

コトバンク is a Japanese-language online encyclopedia which allows users to search across dictionaries, encyclopedias, and databases provided by publishers and others. It is operated by Voyage Marketing Co. At launch, the service's name was in rōmaji, but ...

Natural disasters in Hokkaido 1954 Pacific typhoon season 1954 in Japan Typhoons in Japan {{Tropical-cyclone-stub