A Night Voyage Vanished in Deep Water: The Sinking of a Transport Ship Off the Coast of Taiwan (July 1945)

A Night Voyage Vanished in Deep Water: The Sinking of a Transport Ship Off the Coast of Taiwan (July 1945)
At the end of the Pacific War, in July 1945, a small Japanese transport ship was struck by lightning and roared to the bottom in the dark waters off Taiwan. This record depicts the intense time leading up to the rescue by the destroyer through the recollections of the survivors, who are described in the article as having "roared to the bottom off the coast of Taiwan in July, 1945. The survivor's experience of gazing at the black surface of the sea with no nighttime illumination while holding onto a life raft on the verge of drowning and losing consciousness is only the "tip of the iceberg" of the frequent ship sinkings that occurred at the end of the war. In fact, the list of sunken ships in July 1945 records many Japanese transports, including those around Taiwan.
During this period, Japan had almost lost control of the sea, and the final route for troops and supplies from the south had become a route of death. The destruction of commerce by U.S. submarines and aircraft was strategically underway every day, and ships, both civilian and military, were targets. The article, using personal experiences as an entry point, questions the reality that "unknown soldiers" or "civilian transporters" were thrown to the bottom of the sea in the huge current of war.
The background of the year of publication, 1974, is also important. At that time, 30 years after the end of the war, the previously unmentioned hardships of the victims and the transports were gradually coming to the forefront of our memories. The tragedy of the so-called "Hellships," or POW transports, was also gradually being reevaluated.
This recollection is not merely a supplement to history, but an attempt to reconstruct memory - to shed light on the names that were erased along with the sunken ships. It is also a voice that asks the heavy question of whether war can be told in terms of land battles, atomic bombs, and naval bombardments. The location off the coast of Taiwan at night symbolized Japan's isolation and despair at the end of the war, and the invisible battlefield of the sea.