NAVAL OBITUARY

Chronicle (Levin), 14 June 1946, Page 5

NAVAL OBITUARY

(Official N.Z. CoiTespondent)

Ensl Of Japaliese Fleet

SASEBO, May 8. Despite the crippling damage ' which it suffered ' at the hands of Allied warships and bbmb'ers, the Japanese Navy rnust stili be ranked as one of the greatest fleets in the world. Although it has been stripped of armahient, it is stili hard at Work repatriating the niasses of Japanese prigoners ffbin all pafts of East Asia, and sweeping the thousands of Japanese and Allied mines which stili remain in the waters surrounding the hoirie Islands. But their task is nearing completion and scnn the brilliarit glare of the acetylene torch will be seen .as the remaining vfesse'ls of this once miglity Navy are converted into tons of scrap metal. , The remiiants of the Japanese fleet include the battleship Nagato, , fcwo earriers, three cruisets, 27 destroyers, more than 50 escort vessels, 12 transports, three hospital ships, three converted transports, one submarine tender, and a miscellany of minelayers and bther small craft. In recent weeks, Allied naval forces have scuttled cr sunkj by gunfire the majority o'f the -40,000 tons of Japanese submarine] forces which survived the war, I plus a handful of German and Italian submarines which were discovered in Japanese waters. It is interesting to sort out the fate of the major units of he Japanese fleet. Some, like -the. battieship Haruna, were prematurely reported as destroyed. Actually, the Haruna was finally destroyed by bombing, but she is in Kure harbour and not fathoms deep off the Philippines as early reports indicated. At the peak of her naval power, Japan possessed 12 battleships. The Yarnato and Musashi, classed as 60,000 tonners, were recognised as among the largest eapital ships in the world. .The latter was sunk off the Philippines and sixteen torpedoes sank the Yaniato off the Ryukyus when she attempted a strike at the American fleet off Gkinawa. . The sister hattleships Nagato and Mutsu are des.tined to have doincidental connections with atomic bcmbs — the Nagato is to be a target ship in the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, while the Mutsu figured in one of Japan's worst naval disasters when she blew up in Hiroshima Bay in June, 1943, _whxi few survivors. Thisjyas Hiroshima's major disaster until the advent of the first atomic bomb. A failure of Japanese radar , equipment in October, 1944, catised ! the loss of two more battleships — the Fusb and Yamashiro — wnich were sunk by torpedo boats in Leyte Gulf. The Hiei and Kirishima, two of the major units of the fleet used in the attack on Pearl Harbour, were sunk off Guadalcanal as the tide of war turned. A submarine torpedoed the Kongo off Formoso in 1944, and in spring of , last year the remainder of Japan's! capital ships — the Ise, Haruna andj Hyuga — were put out of eommission t by carrier-based attacks on Kure harbour. j Along with three battleships, J Kure harbour provides a final resu- : ing 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, biit invariably managed to escape. Uarrier planes finally caught her iii their strikes on Kure Haroour and she now lies with her stern under water in the srnelly company of fish-boats. Kure dockyards have also been the mass grave of over 100 midget siTbmarines, which have been buried under tons of debris in one of the great dock basins. In facu, Kure is the major graveyard of the Japanese fleet, with Sasebo, KpbeN*. and Yokosuka each providing additional evidehce of the fact that a large. percentageN of -the Japanese fleet was smashed in its own backyard. 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 in Ebisu Cove is the 19,000 ton Junyo, originally constructed as o 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 earriers of the seven stili afioat are ,the 17,500 ton Kasaragi and the Honsho. At Kure two other earriers, 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 scrne good use cah be found fof them. Meanwhile an ■ amazing assortment of craft, ranging from a veteran cruiser of the RussoJapanese v;ar to the most modcrn small ships, are engaged in bringing Japanese soldiers along the humiliating road back.