''Kasato Maru'' or ''Kasado Maru'' ( ja, 笠戸丸) was a Japanese cargo/passenger ship built by the British shipyard

Wigham Richardson The Wigham Richardson shipbuilding company was named after its founder, John Wigham Richardson (1837-1908), the son of Edward Richardson, a tanner from Newcastle upon Tyne, and Jane Wigham from Edinburgh. History The Company was set up with le ...

in 1900. Originally christened as SS ''Potosí'', the ship was bought by the Russian

Dobroflot Dobroflot or Dobrovolny Flot (Russian: Добровольный флот, Доброфлот, meaning "Voluntary Fleet") was a state-controlled ship transport association established in the Russian Empire in 1878 funded from voluntary contributio ...

, and renamed ''Kazan'', being used as a

hospital ship A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the military forces (mostly navies) of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones. I ...

. She was sunk by the Japanese Navy during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

, salvaged and passed to the Japanese control as compensation for war. She was adapted to be a passenger ship and renamed as ''Kasato Maru'' and transported the soldiers who had fought in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

back to Japan. She was then used to transport Japanese immigrants to Hawaii in 1906 and to Peru and Mexico in 1907. In 1908, she brought the first official group of Japanese immigrants to Brazil. The trip began at the

port of Kobe The Port of Kobe is a Japanese maritime port in Kobe, Hyōgo in the Keihanshin area, backgrounded by the Hanshin Industrial Region. Located at a foothill of the range of Mount Rokkō, flat lands are limited and constructions of artificial isla ...

and ended, 52 days later, at the

Port of Santos The Port of Santos (in Portuguese: ''Porto de Santos'') is located in the city of Santos, state of São Paulo, Brazil. As of 2006, it is the busiest container port in Latin America. In 2016, it was considered the 39th largest port in the world ...

on June 18, 1908. There came 165 families (781 people) who went to work in the coffee plantations of the west of

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

. Some Japanese immigrants arrived at Brazil before ''Kasato Maru'', founding an agricultural colony in the current municipality of

Conceição de Macabu Conceição de Macabu () is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. Its population was 23,398 (2020) and its area is 348 km².IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de ...

(then district of Macaé), in the state of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. However, it was the arrival of this first group brought by ''Kasato Maru'' that initiated a continuous flow of immigration from Japanese to Brazil. Some of the Kasato Maru's passengers continued to Argentina (see :es:Café El Japonés). After some time, ''Kasato Maru'' was transformed into a freighter ship and still returned to Brazil a second and last time, in 1917, transporting loads in the service of Osaka Sosen Kaisha (OSK) Line. In 1942 she was requisitioned by 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 surrend ...

and became part of the

Japanese fleet 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 ...

World War II 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 opposing ...

as a support ship. On 9 August 1945, ''Kasato Maru'' was bombed by three Soviet aircraft from 11:15. to 14:30. ''Kasato Maru'' then sank into the Bering Sea in the Soviet waters near the

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and w ...

. It is currently submerged to a depth of 18 meters and in good state of conservation.

References

{{Reflist Passenger ships of Japan 1900 ships Shipwrecks of Japan Japanese Brazilian