Japanese aircraft carrier Akitsu Maru (1944): Wreck Map & Facts

Name	Japanese aircraft carrier Akitsu Maru	Wikidata label
Year lost	1944	Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier
Era	Second World War	derived from year
Ship type	escort carrier	Wikidata P31 instance of
Cause of loss	War action	Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence
Nationality / flag	Empire of Japan	Wikidata P8047 country of registry
Operator	Imperial Japanese Navy	Wikidata P137 operator
Conflict	World War II	Wikidata P607 conflict
Sea / ocean	Korea Strait	Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon
Nearest coast	Japan	Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 71 km from land
Position	33.2833, 128.1833	Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0)

About the wreck

Akitsu Maru (あきつ丸) was a "Type C" landing craft carrier with a full-length flight deck built for the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. The ship was originally a passenger liner taken over by the IJA before completion. Akitsu Maru's planned role was to provide aircover during amphibious and landing operations; in practice the ship was essentially an aircraft ferry. The ship was sunk by USS Queenfish on 15 November 1944.

In some sources, Akitsu Maru (and Nigitsu Maru) are considered to be the first amphibious assault ships. Although, this title can be disputed with the earlier 8,000-tonne (7,900-long-ton) Shinshū Maru that served a similar role, and being a template for Akitsu Maru. With the deployment of the Shinshū Maru and the larger, further refined Akitsu Maru, the Japanese amphibious forces had in hand prototypes for all-purpose amphibious ships.

In 1937, British and American observers watched Shinshū Maru at work off Shanghai and immediately recognized a significant development in amphibious warfare. It also carried two catapults for aircraft but did not embark operational seaplanes.

Location

Recorded position: 33.2833, 128.1833 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
Sea / ocean: Korea Strait
Nearest coast: Japan

Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.

OpenStreetMap

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Japanese landing craft carrier Akitsu Maru (revision 1357419483), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.