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| IJN Type 2A freighter 6,886 Tons 450' 6" x 59' 6" |
Ship History Built by Mitsui at Tamano. Yard number 376. Laid down as Type 2A freighter for use as a cargo transport. Completed June 22, 1944 as Arisan Maru named for a mountain on Formosa (Taiwan). Purchased by Mitsui Senpaku, the ship was chartered by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) as a transport. Wartime History Arisan Maru departed for Pusan and embarked 6,000 soldiers from the Kwantung Army then transpoted them to Okinawa. Next, ordered to transport Prisoners Of War (POWs) from the Philippines to Manchuria, China and Japan to work as laborers. The ship had three tiers of bunks were installed to accomidate the maximum number of passengers. During early October 1944 arrived Manila and embarked 1,782 American Prisoners of War (POW) and about 100 civilians detained in the cargo holds and was dubbed a "Hell Ship". On October 11, 1944 departs Manila for western Palawan to avoid U.S. air raids against Manila. During this time, a POW attempted to escape and was killed and aboard four POWs died of sickness. On October 20, 1944 returns to Manila to join convoy MATA-30. On October 21, 1944 at 11:40 departed Manila as part of convoy MATA-30 bound for Takao (Kaohsiung) on Taiwan (Formosa). The convoy includes KOKURYU, KIMIKAWA, KIKUSUI, FUYUKAWA, TENSHIN, SHIKISAN, EIKO, ARISAN and RYOFU MARU, DAITEN MARU and SHINSEI MARU No. 1. Escorted by destroyers Harukaze, TAKE and KURETAKE and subchaser CH-20. On October 23, 1944 when the convoy was roughly 200 miles northwest of Luzon, two wolf packs of nine U.S. Navy (USN) submarines began attacks against the convoy. Sinking History On October 24, 1944 spotted by USS Shark (SS-314) that fired a spread of three torpedoes that hit at 5:30pm causing it to break into two halves that floated before sinking. The entire crew except for nine of the Prisoners of War (POW) aboard died in the sinking. The sinking was the largest loss of American lives in a single disaster at sea. Contribute
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