KOSAKUKAN!

Stories and Battle Histories of the IJN's Repair Ships

19 September 2009

By Bob Hackett and Sander Kingsepp

Discussion & Questions



(AKASHI by Takeshi Yuki scanned from "Color Paintings of Japanese Warships")
In 1937, old battleship ASAHI was converted to a repair ship of limited capabilities. ASAHI saw but little repair duty early in the war. She was torpedoed and sunk in May 1942.

In 1940, AKASHI, the only specifically designed repair ship constructed by the IJN, was commissioned. AKASHI performed battle damage repairs to many IJN warships at Truk while converted merchants YAMABIKO HAKKAI, URAKAMI, SHOEI and YAMASHIMO MARUs conducted similar repair work at major IJN bases such as Kwajalein, Truk, Rabaul and Palau.

Japanese Repair Ships: Tabular Records of Movement (TROMs)

(Classes link to specifications summaries)

Asahi Class

Asahi (revised 4/3/05

Akashi Class

Akashi (revised 7/15/07)

Yamabiko Maru Class

Yamabiko Maru (posted 10/5/05)

Hakkai Maru Class

Hakkai Maru (posted 9/6/08)

Shoei Maru Class

Shoei Maru (posted 3/7/09)

Urakami Maru Class

Urakami Maru (posted 4/11/09)

Yamashimo Maru Class

Yamashimo Maru (posted 9/19/09)

Bibliography of Sources

About the Authors

Mr. Robert Hackett is a military historian and researcher. Retired from the United States Air Force and later from the aerospace industry, he resides in Florida.

Mr. Sander Kingsepp, a native of Estonia, is also a military historian and researcher. A talented linguist, Sander's translations of Japanese source materials have greatly enhanced these TROMs.

Questions to the authors concerning these TROMs should be posted on the Discussion and Questions board.