Pacific War
Before Japan's entry into the Second World War she was intercepted by the Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Liverpool 35 miles (56 km) from the coast of Niijima on January 21, 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. The Liverpool removed 21 of the ship's passengers believed to be survivors of the scuttled German liner Columbus. 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.
In the summer of 1942, it was used in the repatriation of the prewar diplomatic staffs of Japan and the Allied nations, the exchange taking place at what is now Maputo.
In transporting Allied prisoners, it was amongst those vessels which earned the epithet "hell ships."
On November 1, 1944, Asama Maru was torpedoed and sunk by the US submarine USS Atule in the South China Sea 100 miles (160 km) south of the island of Pratas.
Read more about this topic: Asama Maru
Famous quotes containing the words pacific and/or war:
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)