TOKUSETSU SENSUI-BOKAN!


(Chogei by Takeshi Yuki scanned from "Color Paintings of Japanese Warships")

IJN Submarine Tender
YASUKUNI MARU: Tabular Record of Movement

© 1998-2008 Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp and Peter Cundall

Revision 1

22 April 1929:
Nagasaki. Laid down at Mitsubishi Shipbuilding.

15 February 1930:
Launched and named YASUKUNI MARU.

31 August 1930:
Completed as an 11,933-ton cargo-passenger ship for the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Line’s Yokohama - Hamburg service.

22 September 1930:
Departs Yokohama for London on NYK's European route on her maiden voyage.

18 October 1930:
Returns to Yokohama. Thereafter, she continues in the NYK Line’s European service with ports of call including Yokohama, Kobe, Yokkaichi, Osaka, Moji, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Penang, Colombo, Suez, Aden, Port Said, Marseilles, Gibraltar, London and Naples.

5 April 1934:
Port Said, Egypt. Embarks several patients from the training vessel ASAMA, recovering after appendix removal.

E September-October 1939:
Hamburg, Germany. As requested by the Consulate General of Japan, YASUKUNI MARU evacuates many Japanese nationals from Berlin and embarks some German passengers. The ship navigates via the North Sea westward, across war-torn Europe, to Japan.

29 October 1940:
Requisitioned by the IJN.

30 October 1940:
Kure Navy Yard. Begins conversion.

16 December 1940:
Registered (commissioned) in the IJN as an auxiliary submarine tender in the Kure Naval District.

11 January 1941:
YASUKUNI MARU completes conversion. She is equipped with six 152-mm/50 cal. (6-inch) licence-built Vickers guns (6x1) and two Type 93 dual mount 13.2-mm machine guns and fitted with one 1110-mm and one 900-mm search lights. She is assigned to the Combined Fleet’s Sixth Fleet (Submarines) SubRon 1.

26 February 1941:
Departs Nakagusuku Bay, Okinawa for the southern coast of China.

3 March 1941:
Arrives at Takao.

7 December 1941:
Kure. In Vice Admiral Shimizu Mitsumi's (former CO of ISE) Sixth Fleet (Submarines) in Rear Admiral Sato Tsutomu’s SubRon 1. Departs Yokosuka for Kwajalein.

15 December 1941:
YASUKUNI MARU is attached to the Sixth Fleet’s SubRon 4 and later replaced by HEIAN MARU.

1 February 1942:
Kwajalein. Vice Admiral (later Fleet Admiral) William F. Halsey Jr’s Task Force 8 (USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6) raids Kwajalein and Wotje in the Marshall Islands. ENTERPRISE’s Douglas “Dauntless” SBDs of VB-6 and VS-6 and TBD “Devastators” of VT-6 sink a transport and damage light cruiser KATORI, flagship of the Sixth Fleet (Submarines). The I-23 and several other important ships are also damaged in the raid.

YASUKUNI MARU is hit by one bomb hit in her aft turret and suffers damage to her stern from bomb fragments.

1 March 1942:
Arrives at Kure.

10 April 1942:
Reassigned to the Sixth Fleet’s SubRon 3.

23 April 1942:
Departs Kure.

1 May 1942:
Recalled Captain-Ret (Rear Admiral, posthumously) Mori Ryo assumes command.

8 July 1942:
ComSubRon 3 Rear Admiral (later Vice Admiral) Kono Chimaki transfers his flag from YASUKUNI MARU to submarine I-11.

23 November 1942:
Arrives at Kure.

4 January 1943:
Departs Kure.

6 January 1943: Operation “C” (HINOE-GO) No. 1 - The Reinforcement of New Guinea:
Pusan, Korea. YASUKUNI MARU loads 1, 448 officers and men and 11 vehicles of the IJA's 20th Infantry division.

At 1530, YASUKUNI MARU departs Pusan for Wewak, New Guinea on a troop transport mission with light cruisers KITAKAMI and OI, ex-AMCs AIKOKU and GOKOKU MARUs, ex-seaplane tenders SANUKI and SAGARA MARUs, ex-auxiliary HAKOZAKI MARU, ex-gunboats SHINKYO and JUSAN MARUs, transport ARATAMA MARU and destroyers HATSUYUKI and SHIKANAMI. >/P>

YASUKUNI MARU is part of the second unit sailing with HAKOZAKI and ARATAMA MARUs directly escorted by HATSUYUKI.

14 January 1943:
Arrives at Rabaul. Lands the 20th Infantry Division's troops and vehicles.

15 January 1943:
Departs Rabaul.

17 January 1943:
Arrives at Palau.

19 January 1943:
Departs Palau.

21 January 1943:
Disembarks troops at Wewak, New Guinea. Departs the same day.

4 February 1943:
Arrives at Tsingtao, China. Embarks troops and supplies of the IJA's 41st Infantry Division.

7 February 1943:
Departs Tsingtao as part of Operation "C" (Hinoe Go) No. 3. YASUKUNI MARU is part of the third unit with KIYOKAWA MARU directly escorted by destroyers AKIGUMO, ISONAMI and NAGATSUKI.

14 February 1943:
Arrives at Palau

21 February 1943:
Departs Palau.

24 February 1943:
Arrives at Wewak.

25 February 1943:
Departs Wewak.

4 March 1943:
Arrives at Kure.

20 March 1943:
Departs Kure.

April 1943:
Arrives at Truk.

11 May 1943:
Departs Palau in fleet convoy 2501 consisting of YASUKUNI, HAKUSAN, DAIGEN, KENKOKU, HOKO and SANYO MARU and small tanker KYOEI MARU escorted by destroyer KURETAKE. [1]

13 May 1943:
Recalled Captain-Retired Seki Tei (36) (former CO of TSUKUSHI MARU) is posted as Commanding Officer. Later, Captain Mori is reassigned as CO of SANYO MARU.

18 May 1943:
At 1600, arrives at Balikpapan where the convoy is dispersed.

13-23 October 1943:
YASUKUNI MARU is with the 11th Wewak Transport Convoy evacuating IJA troops from Wewak to Palau.

5 December 1943:
Departs Truk at 1600 in convoy 4205A with food ship IRAKO escorted by kaibokan MIKURA.

20 December 1943:
Arrives at Yokosuka.

27 December 1943:
Arrives at Yokohama.

1 January 1944:
YASUKUNI MARU is reassigned to transport members of the 49th Anti-aircraft Battalion.

25 January 1944:
Departs Tateyama for Truk in a troop transport convoy with the ex-AMCs AIKOKU and AKAGI MARUs escorted by destroyers MICHISHIO, SHIRATSUYU and IKAZUCHI. YASUKUNI MARU carries submarine spare parts, torpedoes and submarine technicians.

The IJN plans for YASUKUNI MARU to replace light cruiser KATORI as flagship of Vice Admiral (Admiral, posthumously) Takagi Takeo's (former CO of MUTSU) Sixth Fleet (Submarines) at Truk. KATORI is to be reassigned to the General Escort Command because of the IJN's acute shortage of ASW vessels.

31 January 1944: American Operation “Flintlock” - The Invasion of the Marshall Islands:
Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Marc A. Mitscher’s Task Force 58 lands the 4th Marine Division and the Army's 7th Infantry Division that capture the Kwajalein, Roi-Namur and Majuro atolls.

That same day, 300 miles NW of Truk, at about 0200, LtCdr Robert E. Dornin's USS TRIGGER (SS-237) attacks YASUKUNI MARU’s convoy. Dornin fires three torpedoes by radar at largest ship and Lt (later Captain) Edward L. Beach, the XO fires three other torpedoes from the bridge at the nearest destroyer using the Target Bearing Transmitter (TBT). The TBT's torpedoes run erractically and miss. The three fired by radar also miss the big ships, but one hits and slightly damages MICHISHIO, probably a dud.

Still on the surface, TRIGGER turns tail on a nearby destroyer and fires four stern torpedoes at her, but they all miss. Masked by her heavy diesel exhaust, TRIGGER hauls away on a reciprocal course to the destroyer. Unaware that her opponent is on the surface, the destroyer drops depth charges.

Dornin makes a high speed "end-around." At about 0358, he fires five torpedoes in surface radar attack on the largest ship. Two torpedoes hit YASUKUNI MARU. She sinks about five minutes later 17 miles NW of Truk at 9-15N, 147-13E.

YASUKUNI MARU is carrying over 1,200 men of whom about 300 sailors and 888 technical personnel are lost. SHIRATSUYU rescues 43 survivors. Captain Seki is among those KIA. He is promoted Rear Admiral, posthumously.

10 March 1944:
Removed from the Navy List.

Authors' Note:
[1] The identity of this SANYO MARU is unclear. It was not seaplane tender SANYO MARU as she was in Japan at this time.

- Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp and Peter Cundall.

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