In front of Yanmashita park in Yokohama, located on the waterfront, the NYK ship Hikawamaru is moored as a floating museum. She recently celebrated her 80th birthday. The 11,622 ton Hikawa Maru was built in 1929 by Yokohama Dock Co – yard 177, for the Nippon Yusen KK line, Tokyo.
She was launched on September 30, 1929 and completed on April 25, 1930. She commenced on her maiden voyage from Kobe to Seattle on May 13. She offered fine service combined with superb food which saw her become a much sought after ship and passengers gave her the nickname “Queen of the Pacific.”
The following video tells the story of 87 year old Ichiro Yoshimura and Mia Ishimaru, who met while serving on the ship:
80 years
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A rough translation of the scenes as follows: The video opens with scenes from the 80th anniversary celebration and explains about a special tour of the insides of the ship that are being given that day. Ichiro is then introduced who says he has many memories of the ship. The video then shifts to the history of the ship, commissioned in 1930 she was known as the “Queen of the Northern Pacific”. She was converted to a hospital ship in 1941 and served as such through the war. The story quickly covers its service during the war and then points out that after the war it was used to bring troops home to the US and Japan. A picture of the young Yoshimura-san is shown. A picture of young Ishimaru-san is shown and then she talks about the large net that the soldiers used to climb up the side to board the ship. There is a scene ( with the orange subtitles) where the woman points out how stupid war is, “isnt it?”. The video points out that over 28,000 people were returned home in a year and a half-on this ship. Following scenes showing the troops coming home-it relates the story of how the ship returned to passenger service and then was taken out of service in 1960. She was a youth hostel, and a museum and beer garden, but was closed in 2002 due to dwindling visitors. NYK restored the ship in 2007 and she re-opened. Yoshimura-san closes the video by announcing how happy he is to see the ship restored to her once great appearance.