The grisly (but true) story of the Awa Maru

The Awa Maru was an 11,000-ton troop transport with a crew of 148 that the Japanese converted into a hospital ship. In January 1945, Japan and America agreed to give safe conduct to ships carrying Red Cross supplies to Allied POW camps. So, in February, 1945, the Awa Maru set off for the South Seas, carrying 2,000 tons of Red Cross parcels (and 20 crated aircraft, and 500 tons of munitions- the Japanese had few scruples about violating agreements).

After delivering its cargo, the Awa Maru loaded up with war materials: oil, aluminium, rubber, and tons of looted gold and platinum. The Japanese also took advantage of the promise of safe conduct by cramming the Awa Maru with 1,900 soldiers, technicians, and civilians they wanted to get back to Japan.

On the evening of April 1, 1945, the Awa Maru was headed north in the Straits of Taiwan at the speed of 17 knots. Also in the Straits that night was the USS Queenfish (SS-393), whose CO, Commander Charles Loughlin, was in between a rock and a very hard place. He had received the message from Pacific Fleet headquarters about granting the Awa Maru safe passage. He also saw a radar contact that looked like a destroyer, and he knew that failing to press home an attack was a court-marital offense. It was a foggy night, with visibility around 200 yards, so the red crosses and floodlights on the sides of the Awa Maru weren't doing any good. At 2300 (11p.m.), Commander Loughlin fired four torpedoes. All of them hit, and the Awa Maru sank in about *two* *minutes*. Quite a few of the over two thousand men onboard managed to get off the ship, but only *one*, a steward named Kantoro Shimoda, tried to get picked up by the Archerfish. The rest went to the bottom.

The Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Admiral Frank King ordered Commander Loughlin court-martialed (he got off relatively easy with a Letter of Admonition- and as a result, the members of the Court Martial caught hell from Admiral King).

The interrogators who questioned Steward Shimoda heard quite a story. The Awa Maru was not the first sinking he'd survived. He'd been onboard the Heiyo Maru (sunk Jan. '43), the Teiko Maru (sunk Feb '44), and the Teia Maru (sunk August '44). I can't find any record of what Kantoro Shimoda did after the war- I suspect he would have liked to have moved to a monastery on the slopes of the Himalayas.