JAPANESE NAVY

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24902, 15 June 1946, Page 7

JAPANESE NAVY

STILL A GREAT FLEET

(Official N.Z. War Correspondent in Japan.) SASEBO, May 8. Although suffering crippling damage at the hands of Allied warsnips and bombers, the Japanese navy must still be ranked as one of the greatest fleets in the world. Although it has been stripped of armament, it is still hard at work repatriating the masses of Japanese prisoners from all parts of East Asia, and sweeping the thousands of Japanese and Allied mines which remain in the waters surrounding the home islands. The remnants of the Japanese fleet include the battleship Nagato, two carriers, three cruisers, 27 destroyers, more than 50 escort vessels, 12 transports, three hospital ships, three converted transports, one submarine tender, and a miscellany of minelayers and other small craft. In recent weeks, Allied naval forces have scuttled or sunk by gunfire the majority of the 40.000 tons of Japanese submarine forces which survived the war, plus a handful of German and Italian submarines which were discovered in Japanese waters. Along with the three ships, Ise, Harun a, and Hyuga, Kure harbour provides a final resting place for many more Japanese warships. These include the cruiser Aobe, one of the luckiest ships in the Japanese navy. She was in almost every major naval engagement of the Pacific war, was damaged time and time again, but invariably managed to escape. Carrier planes finally caught her in their strikes on Kure harbour, and she now lies with her stern under water in the smelly company of fish-boats. Kure dockyards nave also been the mass grave for more than 100 midget submarines, which have been buried under tons of debris in one of the great dock basins.

Like bloated, rusty leeches against the blue-green of Sasebo’s magnificent harbour—once as “hush-hush” a naval base as Kure—float three of the sadly dilapidated units of the Nipponese carrier fleet. Largest of the trio swinging at anchor in Ebisu Cove is the 19,000 ton Junyo. originally constructed as a liner for the Japanese Olympics. in the first battle of the Philippine Sea, 56 aircraft left her flight deck and only one returned. The Kasagi and Ibuki. which were never completed, float alongside. The only two serviceable carriers of the seven still afloat are the 17,500 ton Kasaragi and the Honsho. At Kure, two other carriers, the Kaiyo and the Ryuho, are being scrapped. When the immense task of repatriating thousands upon thousands of Japanese to their homeland is completed, the remaining vessels of the fleet will be scrapped unless some good use can be found for them.