CHUUK - NIPPO MARU

Built in 1936 by the Kawasaki Dockyard in Kobe, the 3,763-ton Nippo Maru began its life as a civilian cargo ship before the Imperial Japanese Navy requisitioned it in 1941. It spent the early years of the war functioning as an auxiliary transport and water tanker, delivering vital munitions and supplies to Japanese forces throughout the Pacific.

The ship's service came to a violent end during Operation Hailstone on February 17, 1944, when USS Essex dive bombers struck it with three 500-pound bombs. The crippled vessel plunged into the waters of Chuuk Lagoon, where it now sits upright at a depth of approximately 50 meters. Today, the wreck is famous for the hauntingly preserved Japanese Type 95* tank that remains parked on its port side deck alongside artillery and other wartime cargo.

            

In late June 2015 I spent nearly three weeks hopping between different Pacific locations exploring WWII sites both above and below the surface. I dived the Nippo Maru at least three times in the week I was in Chuuk, with the goal of trying to get a "good shot" of the tank* and unfortunately due to a number of factors - silt, lack of light, equipment, and mostly user error the images on the left above were the best I managed to take. Those on the right, are after much fighting, cajoling, and AI hallucinations, Gemini enhanced. Below are some shots from the back of the same wreck where there sits three 47mm Type 1 Anti-tank guns all jumbled up, these have been edited only for exposure, brightness and contrast, no AI help at all.

 

* There is some debate, and some sites actually list the "tank" as a Type 97 Ke-Te  Tankette, however the Senshi Sosho (the official Japanese Ministry of Defense's history)  lists the logistical manifest of the 52nd Division Tank Unit as explicitly being equipped with Type 95 Ha-Go tanks. Added to which the supply chain convoy that the Nippo Maru operated in included the San Francisco Maru and it famously has three Ha-Gos on its decks and was sunk nearby.