The Claim
Billions worth of treasure sits at the bottom of the Taiwan strait
The Awa Maru was a Japanese ocean liner built for the civilian purposes, however due to the outbreak of the second world war, it was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese navy and converted into a support ship.
Taking just under 2 years to build the ship was finally completed on March 6th 1943, and was immediately put into use. Between its launch and January of 1945, the Awa Maru transported thousands of tons of ammunition and personnel to Singapore, proving itself to be a reliable transport vessel.
In January of 1945 the ship was converted to a Red Cross relief ship, which under the “Relief for POW’s” agreement, allowed American supplies to be transported to prisoners in Japanese custody, which gave it the perfect disguise to move about without being blown up.
As part of the agreement any relief ships had to alert the other side of their movements, mostly so they weren’t mistaken for a military vessel and targeted as such. After one such peaceful voyage to Singapore delivering supplies to prisoners, the ship restocked with fuel and goods to be taken back to Japan.
This is where our treasure tale begins, as various stories talk about how the ship was loaded with more than just people. The ship was officially loaded with hundreds of military personnel, including many officers, diplomats and a number of civilians, along with what was claimed to be a stock of nickel and rubber.
However, there are various claims of how the stockpile of the local Singapore stronghold was to be loaded onto the ship for transportation back to Japan for safe keeping. This included 40 tons of gold, 12 tons of platinum and 30kg of high quality diamonds, as well of some sensitive military documents.
The ship was apparently observed as being loaded during the day with nothing more than sack of rice, but later that night the docks were cleared of all civilians and soldiers were seen taking the rice off the ship and loading it with hundreds of box’s.
The Awa Maru departed Singapore on March 28, but on April 1 was forced to change her route as a minefield had recently been set up along the course that the Allied forces were told she’d be sailing along.
The ship was forced to change its course and sailed north along the Taiwan strait to avoid any mines, but unfortunately an American submarine, the USS Queenfish (SS-393) was in the area. The submarine mistook the ship for a destroyer and its captain ordered torpedo’s to be fired, which hit the ship directly and after a huge explosion sank almost immediately. Only one person out of the 2,004 people on board the Awa Maru survived, a man named Kantora Shimoda who was the captains personal steward.
The officer in charge of the Queenfish, commander Charles Elliot Loughlin was summoned to an immediate court marshal, as the Awa Maru was officially a hospital ship under the protection of the Red Cross.
But what about the treasure?
Well the Japanese were understandably quite upset about the sinking of a ship that the Americans promised not to sink, and Japans foreign minister sent a message to the United States demanding 196,115,000 yen ($45 million) for the loss of 2,003 lives; 30,370,000 yen ($7.25 million) for the goods aboard the Awa Maru; and various other claims, for a total demand of 227,286,600 yen or approximately $52.5 million.
The bill was never paid and the matter was dropped in 1949. But as for the treasure it seems that no one can quite agree on what exactly was in the ships cargo, with one claim even suggesting it was carrying the Peking Man, a specimen of an ancient race who existed 750,000 years ago.
The last time the skull of Peking man was officially seen was in Singapore right around the time the Awa Maru was docked there. But as for all the gold and such that’s claimed to be on board, i can only say it would be possible.
A Red Cross ship would be the perfect disguise to move such a valuable load safely, and Japan was well into its stage of losing the war at this point so it would make sense for any nation to try and move their stockpiles to a safer place, but this is only speculation.
In 1980, the people republic of China claimed to have found the wreck, and launched on the biggest salvage operations in history. It took them over 5 years and a cost of more than $100 million in the operation, though China claims that no treasure was found.
This only raises more questions though as why did they spend so much on a salvage operation over such as long period if there was no treasure?, normally the ships home country would be notified and they could pay for and conduct the salvage.
Maybe the Chinese have tons of gold and a Peking man skull, or maybe there was nothing on board the ship other than people, tin and rubber, but since the wreck has already been found and cleaned out i guess we’ll never know.
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