Hashidate Maru

The IJN Hashidate Maru was a Japanese Standard Merchant 1TL tanker built by Kawasaki Shipbuilding for Nippon Kaiyo Gyogyo K. K. It was built at Kobe, Japan and commissioned in 31 October 1944 to support the war effort by transporting oil, and later, refitted as a whaling factory ship.

World War II
In 15 January 1945, while the Hashidate Maru sits at the Hong Kong port, an American carrier aircraft begin attacks that that causes light damage to the oil tanker, it is moved to the dockyard for repairs, only to be lightly damaged again the next day by near misses. When the battle ends, the Japanese claim 22 enemy aircraft shot down, but acknowledge serious damage to three tankers and light damage to three escorts.

In 1 February 1945, the Hashidate Maru departs Hong Kong in convoy with four Type 2TE tankers. Soon after, she strikes a naval mine and begins to settle, but emergency repairs contain the flooding. In 15 August 1945 it docks at Osaka for repairs, but it is instead surrendered to the Allied Forces in September 1945.

Whaling
General Douglas MacArthur, as military governor of Japan in 1945, encouraged the defeated Japan to continue whaling in order to provide a cheap source of meat to its starving people, and millions of dollars in oil for the USA and Europe. The Japanese whaling industry quickly recovered as MacArthur authorized the commission of two tankers as whaling factory ships : the Hashidate Maru and Nisshin Maru No. 1, to once again take whales in the Antarctic and elsewhere.

The Hashidate Maru began its reconversion to a whale factory ship by Hitachi Zosen in June 1946, with the work completed in October 1946. A refrigeration unit was installed in May 1947. The crew numbered 304, of whom 186 were factory workers, and comprised a large proportion of young men, most of them being between 15 and 20 years of age. The Hashidate Maru served as a factory whaling ship from 1946 to early 1951.

Oil tanker
The ship was decommissioned from whaling in 1951 and sold in May 1951 to Iino Kaiun for 45 million ¥ens, who converted it back to an oil tanker. The Hashidate Maru then was chartered in 1952 to Standard Oil of California. It made three voyages from the Persian Gulf and Indonesia carrying crude oil to California. In 7 July 1962 it was sold to Naigai Kisen K.K. in Tokyo. The Hashidate Maru was finally sold for scrapping in 20 April 1965.