MS Asama Maru

The MS "Asama Maru" was a Japanese ocean liner owned by Nippon Yusen Kaisha, built by the company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Nagasaki, Japan and launched in 1929. The "Asama Maru" was built for the Yokohama-San Francisco service. Before Japan's entry into the Second World War she was intercepted by the Royal Navy light cruiser HMS "Liverpool" convert|35|mi|km from the coast of Niijima on 21 January 1940. Alerted to reports that Axis sailors in the United States were preparing to arrange transport to Germany, the British Government had authorised the C-in-C, China Station to direct a warship to detain certain passengers providing the coast of Japan was not within sight. [Best, Antony (1995), "Britain, Japan and Pearl Harbor: Avoiding War in East Asia, 1936-41", p96] The "Liverpool" removed 21 of the ship's passengers believed to be survivors of the scuttled German liner "Columbus".Marder, Arthur Jacob (1981), "Old Friends, New Enemies: The Royal Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy", p106] The Government of Japan condemned it as an abuse of belligerent rights and formally protested the action, which further escalated tensions between the two countries.

In 1941 the ship became a troopship for the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was among the 'hell ships' used to transport Allied prisoners. On 1 November 1944 she was torpedoed and sunk by the US submarine USS "Atule" in the China Sea 100 miles south of the island of Pratas.

References

* [http://shiplover3.stormpages.com/Japan/AsamaMaru.html Details of the Asama Maru]