At the time of the
attack on Pearl Harbor,
Asama Maru was serving as a
troopship and had just arrived at
Saipan. In early 1942, she made several voyages been Japan and the
Philippines and
Borneo, including the transport of the paratroopers of the
3rd Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force to
Tarakan in Borneo on 16 January 1942.
In June1942,
Asama Maru was temporarily designated a diplomatic exchange vessel, and was used in the
repatriation of the prewar diplomatic staffs of Japan and the Allied nations. She departed Yokohama on 25 June with US Ambassador
Joseph Grewand 430 other American diplomats, along with members of the Spanish embassy in Japan. On reaching Hong Kong on 29 June, she embarked an additional 377 Americans, Canadians and other Allied nationals. She took on 114 repatriates on 3 July at
Saigon, and yet more in
Singapore on 6 July, so that when she reached
Lourenço Marques in
Portuguese East Africa on 22 July, she was carrying 789 civilians. These were exchanged for 1500 Japanese and Siamese diplomats (including Ambassador
Kichisaburo Nomura and
Saburō Kurusu), businessmen and journalists in the United States and Brazil at the time of the outbreak of war, who had been transported to this location on the
MS Gripsholm.
[17] She returned to Yokohama on 20 August, and was requisitioned again by the Imperial Japanese Navy on 5 September .
Asama Maru was placed back in served as a troopship and transport, shuttling men and supplies from Japan to various points in Southeast Asia. On 10 October, she was assigned to carry 1000 Allied
prisoners of war from
Makassar to Nagasaki.
[9] This was the first of several voyages to transport Allied prisoners, which would later earn
Asama Maru the epithet of "
hell ship."
In February 1943,
Asama Maru was fitted with a
hydrophone and rack for 16
depth charges. She narrowly escaped four torpedoes fired at her by
USS Sunfish on 10 March off of Takao (now
Kaohsiung), but was alerted in time by her hydrophone operator and was able to take evasive action.
On 23 February 1944, she was slightly damaged in an attack by
USS Grayback (SS-208) in the
South China Sea 20 miles east of
Taiwan. The oiler
Nanpo Maru was sank by
Grayback in the same attack.
In October 1944,
Asama Maru was one of the ships in a major convoy transporting elements of the
Imperial Japanese Army’s
1st Division from China to the Philippines. Despite constant attacks by American submarines and aircraft, over 12,000 men were successfully sent to reinforce the Japanese garrison at
Luzon prior to the American landings. On the return voyage from Manila to Takao,
Asama Maru embarked 1383 military and civilian personnel, including survivors of sunken merchant vessels, as well as 170 tons of
scrap iron, 80 tons of hemp, 80 tons of raw rubber and other supplies. On 1 November, the convoy was attacked in the
Bashi Channel by
USS Atule (SS-403) in the
South China Sea 100 miles (160 km) south of the island of
Pratas.
Asama Maru was torpedoed twice in the starboard side, hitting both the main and the auxiliary engine rooms. A few minutes later, two more torpedoes in the starboard side exploded to flood the No.3 and No.4 holds.
Asama Maru sank stern first less than ten minutes later. Survivors rescued included 103 men from her 201 man crew and 1028 of her 1383 passengers