was a food supply ship of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

which was in service from the 1920s to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Construction

''Mamiya'' was originally meant to be an oil transporter but was instead outfitted to be a food supply ship. The

sent her to the Kawasaki Shipbuilding Yard where she was fitted with facilities for carrying enough food for 18,000 men over three weeks, and kitchens to produce large quantities of food including

yōkan is a wagashi (Japanese confection) made of red bean paste, agar, and sugar. It is usually sold in a block form, and eaten in slices. There are two main types: ''neri yōkan'' and ''mizu yōkan''. "Mizu" means "water", and indicates that it i ...

manjū is a traditional Japanese confection. Of the many varieties of manjū, most have an outside made from flour, rice powder, kudzu, and buckwheat, and a filling of ''anko'' ( red bean paste), usually made from boiled adzuki beans and sugar. ''M ...

tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super firm ...

, and konyaku. A number of chefs and pastry chefs were employed aboard and she became part of the Combined Fleet.

Service in Pacific War

Already old by the outbreak of war, she continued to be part of the navy's supply operations in the Pacific. On 12 October 1943, she was damaged by the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

submarine near Chichi-jima, and on 6 May 1944, was again damaged by in the

East China Sea The East China Sea is an arm of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. It covers an area of roughly . The sea’s northern extension between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula is the Yellow Sea, separated b ...

. In both cases she was repaired and returned to service. The food supply ship was torpedoed and damaged in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

() by . She was torpedoed again and sunk () on 21 December by ''Sealion''.

Books

*''The Maru Special, Japanese Naval Vessels No.34 Japanese Auxiliary ships'', Ushio Shobō (Japan), December 1979, Book code 68343-34 *''Collection of writings by Sizuo Fukui Vol.10, Stories of Japanese Support Vessels'', Kōjinsha (Japan), December 1993,

External links

''Mamiya'' in combinedfleet.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mamiya World War II naval ships of Japan Ships sunk by American submarines 1923 ships Maritime incidents in December 1944 Ships built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries