Loss
On Tuesday 8 June 1943 the Mutsu was moored at the Battleship Division 2 flagship buoy No.2 in the Hashirajima fleet anchorage approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) south-west of the island of Hashirajima and just to the west of Mitsuhima island in the Inland Sea, hosting 113 flying cadets and 40 instructors from the Tsuchiura Naval Air Group on a familiarization tour. At 12:13 the magazine of her No. 3 turret exploded. The explosion was so severe that it instantly sheared the stern from the ship forward of No. 3 turret, causing major flooding in the boiler rooms and main engine room. The 535-foot (163 m) forward section of the ship rolled to starboard and sank almost immediately. The stern section upended and remained floating until about 0200 hours on 9 June before sinking, coming to rest a few hundred feet south of the main wreck.
The battleship Fuso immediately launched two boats which, together with assistance from the destroyers Tamanami, Wakatsuki, the cruisers Tatsuta and Mogami, were able to rescue 353 survivors from the 1,474 crew members and visitors aboard Mutsu, giving a loss of 1,121. Only 13 of the visiting flying cadets/instructors were among the survivors. During the initial and later salvage operations, lasting until 1978, all but 272 of the bodies were recovered. Since 1963, a memorial service is held every year on 8 June in Tôwa Chô in honour of the crew.
After the explosion, as the rescue operations commenced, the fleet was mobilized and the area was combed for Allied submarines and X-craft, but no traces were found.
To avert the potential damage to morale of the loss of a battleship coming so soon after the string of recent setbacks in the war effort, Mutsu's loss was declared a state secret. Mass cremations of recovered bodies began almost immediately after the sinking. Captain Miyoshi's body was recovered from his cabin by divers on 17 June, his wife was not officially notified until 6 January 1944, how he had died was not mentioned. Both he and his second in command, Captain Ono Koro, were posthumously promoted to Rear Admiral, which was normal Japanese Navy practice. 39 wounded survivors were sent to a secluded hospital on Mitsukoshima.
To further prevent rumours from spreading, healthy and recovered survivors were re-assigned to various garrisons in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the survivors were sent to Truk in the Caroline Islands to form the 41st Guard Force. Another 150 were sent to Saipan in the Mariana Islands where most were killed in 1944 during the battle for the island.
At the time of the explosion Mutsu's magazine contained a number of 16-inch Type 3 "Sanshikidan" incendiary shells, which had caused a fire at the Sagami arsenal several years earlier due to improper storage. Because they might have been the cause of the explosion, the Minister of the Navy, Admiral Shimada Shigetaro, immediately ordered the removal of Type 3 shells from all IJN ships carrying them, until the conclusion of the investigation into the loss.
Read more about this topic: Japanese Battleship Mutsu
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