Hikawa Maru - The one that got away..

A class of three ships that luck would make legendary - one of them actually survived the war!!!

The three sisters comprised ships that were 11,622 tons and were 536 feet in length, their names came from major Shinto shrines in Japan, comprising the following choices,

Hikawa Maru - from a shrine in Saitama, central Honshu

Hiye Maru - from a shrine in Chiyoda, Tokyo. (In 1938 the transliteration would be changed to Hie Maru)

Heian Maru - from a historic shrine in central Kyoto.

They were combined cargo passenger ships for the Kobe - Seattle service and were completed between April and November of 1930, although, in the event the service would actually run between Hong Kong and Seattle.

They would serve until 1941, carrying a great many Jewish refugees to Canada during the latter part of the 1930's, Japan, despite her being a signatory to the Axis alliance resolutely refused to go along with Nazi Germany's anti-Semitic policies, in the case of Hikawa Maru, which would become a Hospital ship, thus allowing her to survive the war, while Hie Maru and Heian Maru would serve as liners till 1942, being requisitioned a submarine tender ships, both would be lost - a running theme with Japanese merchant ships, Hie Maru being sunk on November 17th, 1943, by the submarine USS Drum, while Heian Maru was sunk by US aircraft on February 17th, 1944 near the Truk Islands.

Hikawa Maru was seized by the Americans in 1945 and used as a troop transport until 1947, when she was returned to Japan as now the largest liner under the Japanese flag, she would re-enter Trans-Pacific service in 1950 although initially as a cargo ship, and serve until 1961 when she was converted to a floating youth hostel, museum and restaurant at Yamashita Park, Naka-ku, Yokohama. Despite her original owners suffering losses and having to sell the ship in 2006, the ship was restored by the still extant NYK company and she re-opened to the public on 25th April 2008.

On 17th August 2016 Hikawa Maru was officially designated as an Important Cultural Property by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.