Mayasan Maru
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The Mayasan Maru was a landing depot ship of the Imperial Japanese Navy . It was torpedoed and sunk on November 17, 1944. The sinking of the Mayasan Maru and the other ships in Convoy HI-81 by US submarines resulted in one of the greatest shipping disasters of World War II.
The ship was laid down as a cargo ship on August 27, 1941 , but the Japanese Navy decided in 1942 to complete the ship as a landing depot ship during construction. After being launched on June 29, 1942, it was completed on December 14, 1942. It carried 20 Daihatsu landing craft . For defense it was armed with six 75-mm cannons and 20 13.2-mm machine guns. Her sister ship was the Tamatsu Maru .
In November 1944, the Mayasan Maru , now used as a troop transport, with over 5000 Japanese soldiers on board, was part of the HI-81 convoy en route from Imari across the East China Sea to Shanghai . 4387 soldiers belonged to the 23rd division. It was also a unit with Shin'yō explosives and 204 horses on board.
The Mayasan Maru was torpedoed and sunk by the American submarine Picuda on November 17, 1944. As a result of an approaching storm, only about 1,400 survivors were rescued. Around 3,600 people drowned.
In addition to the victims on the Mayasan Maru , 1130 people and Akitsu Maru with 2046 people died in the attacks on the Hi-81 convoy on the escort aircraft carriers Shin'yō, which were also used as troop transports . In the attacks on the convoy from November 15-18, 1944, eight Japanese ships were sunk and nearly 7,000 people were killed.