© 2007-2009 Bob Hackett and Peter Cundall
5 October 1944:
Tsurumi, Yokohama. Laid down at Nippon Kokan K. K.'s shipyard.
25 May 1945:
Launched and numbered CD-97.
September 1945:
Tsurumi. Surrendered incomplete to the Allied Forces.
12 December 1945:
Completed as a transport for the Allied Repatriation
Service. [1]
26 December 1945:
Departs Uraga on her first repatriation voyage.
2 January 1946:
Arrives at Guam. Embarks troops and passengers to be repatriated.
6 January 1946:
Departs Guam.
9 January 1946:
Arrives at Palau. Embarks troops and passengers to be repatriated.
11 January 1946:
Departs Palau.
18 January 1946:
Arrives at Uraga. Disembarks troops and passengers.
27 January 1946:
Enters Tsurumi dockyard for repairs.
20 February 1946:
Repairs are completed.
23 February 1946:
Departs Uraga.
28 February 1946:
Arrives at Guam. Embarks troops and passengers to be repatriated.
2 March 1946:
Departs Guam.
3 March 1946:
Arrives at Tinian. Embarks troops and passengers to be repatriated and departs later the same day.
10 March 1946:
Arrives at Okinawa. Embarks troops and passengers to be repatriated.
13 March 1946:
Departs Okinawa.
18 March 1946:
Arrives at Otaka. Disembarks troops and passengers. Because of a shortage of spares, CD-97 never makes another voyage.
1 April 1946:
Discarded. Moored at Kure.
27 October 1947:
Kure. Scrapped.
Authors' Note:
[1] Allied occupation forces were responsible for the return of six million Japanese military personnel and civilians from Japan's defunct far-flung Empire. In addition, there were over a million Korean and about 40,000 Chinese prisoners and conscript laborers and approximately 7,000 Formosans and 15,000 Ryukyu Islanders to be repatriated.
Some Allied and many former IJN warships, from aircraft carriers to kaibokan, were used to facilitate the enormous repatriation effort. Japanese vessels and crews were used to the fullest extent possible to conserve Allied manpower and accelerate demobilization. Each ex-IJN ship first had to be demilitarized; guns removed or, in the case of large warships, barrels severed, ammunition landed, and radar and catapults removed, if fitted. Repatriation of the Chinese on Japanese ships began early in October from Hakata, but U.S. guard detachments had to be placed on many ships to prevent disorder because the Japanese crews could not control the returnees.
Japanese-run repatriation centers were established at Kagoshima, Hario near Sasebo, and Hakata near Fukuoka. Other reception centers were established and operated at Maizuru, Shimonoseki, Sasebo, Senzaki, Kure, Uraga, Yokohama, Moji and Hakodate. Allied line and medical personnel supervised the centers. Incoming Japanese were sprayed with DDT, examined and inoculated for typhus and smallpox, provided with food, and transported to his final destination in Japan.
-Bob Hackett and Peter Cundall
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