A new memorial commemorating the victims of a Japanese merchant ship sunk by the German navy in the final days of World War I will be unveiled later this year in Wales.
More than 200 sailors and passengers died when the Hirano Maru was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Irish Sea in October 1918, just over one month before the peace armistice was signed to end the war.
As one of the Allies contributing alongside Britain and France to the war effort, merchant vessels from Japan were seen as legitimate targets by Germany.
(Grave post for the victims aboard the torpedoed Hirano Maru)
[Photo courtesy of a resident in Angle]
After the ship was sunk, local residents in Pembrokeshire, Wales, found at least 20 bodies along different stretches of the county's coastline, although the British national broadcaster BBC says the majority of bodies were found washed up on Irish beaches.
The bodies of victims were buried in a local churchyard and a wooden memorial was erected at the time, but this has since rotted away.
According to the vessel's shipping company Nippon Yusen K.K., the boat was in the beginnings of a journey from Liverpool to Yokohama when it was torpedoed, with only 30 of the 240 people onboard surviving the attack.
Approximately two-thirds of those onboard were crew, and the rest passengers.
In the local church of Angle, a small village in Wales, burial records list nine anonymous victims, only naming one man, Shiro Okoshi, who is recorded in the shipping company's records as having been a waiter on the ship.
(Photo courtesy of Setsuo Kato)
It is unknown whether the remaining victims were Japanese, as some passengers and crew were foreign, including a British captain.
The church also possesses old photos in the churchyard of a wooden grave marker, which according to its inscription was erected 11 days after the ship was sunk.
David James, honorary secretary of the West Wales Heritage Maritime Society, has been raising funds to create a new memorial with support from Nippon Yusen.
As a former serviceman, James spent time serving the British Army in Germany and Libya, where he noticed the graves of British soldiers had markers, inspiring him to commemorate the victims of war in his hometown. "We must remember them," he said.
The unveiling ceremony of the memorial to the 10 victims will take place on Oct. 4, exactly 100 years after the sinking took place, and will be attended by local residents and representatives from Nippon Yusen and the Japanese Embassy.
"The men in the graves there had families, somebody grieved when they died," James said. He hopes the memorial will "show there is feeling here, and compassion."
(David James, 7th from right, is pictured with Angle residents. Photo courtesy of Setsuo Kato)
He also said he wants the memorial to keep the story alive among younger generations and help them understand the realities of war.
A spokesperson for Nippon Yusen said it was always difficult to retrieve keepsakes to send back to the families of victims who die when a ship is lost at sea.
The company believes the sinking of the Hirano Maru could be the greatest loss experienced in Japanese commercial shipping during the course of World War I.
