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The Lima Maru was built in 1920 by the Mitsubishi Zosen Kaisha (Mitsubishi Shipyard & Machinery Works) in Nagasaki for the Nippon Yusen shipping company. After she was completed in 1920 (Taisho 9), she played an active role as the main cargo ship of Nippon Yusen for European routes.[1]
When the Sino-Japanese War began, "Ima Maru" was used by the Japanese Army from September 1, 1937 (Showa 12) to March 30, 1938 (Showa 13) and from June 24, 1938, to 1939 (Showa 14).[1] In 1941 (Showa 16), amid tensions between Japan and the United States, she went to Los Angeles in the United States to collect aviation gasoline and transported it to the port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan, which was then a Japanese territory[2]
When Japan began preparations for war with the United States, the ship, which was already over 20 years old and classified as a dilapidated ship, was requisitioned by the Japanese Army on September 13, 1941.[1] After the outbreak of the Pacific War, on December 22 of the same year, "Ima Maru" belonged to the 2nd Fleet, 8th Squadron of a total of 84 convoys, including the same T-type " Tajima Maru" and "Tsushima Maru"., participated in the landings at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon during the Battle of the Philippines In 1942 (Showa 17), she took in the army units that had finished the Battle of Hong Kong and landed them in Palembang, Sumatra. She participated in the Battle of Burma, advanced to Rangoon, and on the way back, towed the cargo ship "Asoyama Maru" (Mitsui Sensen : 8811 gross tons), which was wrecked in the Battle of Malaya, from Pattani to Hong Kong.[2] On November 12–29 of the same year, she transferred from Moji to Rabaul. 1234 army officers and 118 horses of the engineering corps were safely transported [8] [9]. In 1943 (Showa 18), based in Manila, she acted mainly in the Philippines. On March 16 and April 6 of the same year, she encountered an enemy submarine, but she escaped by bombarding it with self-defense artillery, and was commended by the army.[2]
On 8 February 1944, as part of convoy MOTA-02, she was transporting around 2,900 men of the Japanese 19th Brigade from Moji to Takao. The Lima Maru was torpedoed and sunk by the US submarine some 30 miles south east of the Goto Archipelago at position 31°05´N, 127°37´E.[3] The Lima Maru exploded and sank very fast. Fewer than 150 soldiers survived.[4]
In August 2018, Tamaki Ura, a special professor at Kyushu Institute of Technology, conducted a seafloor survey in the area where the ship was presumed to have sunk, but no hull was found. The bodies of some of the victims washed ashore on Mageshima Island (Nishinoomote City, Kagoshima Prefecture), more than 300 km to the east, and were temporarily buried by the islanders. A bone survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is scheduled for late October to early November 2018.[5]