Brazil Maru
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=File:Brazil_Maru_1944-45_Hellship.jpg |Ship image size=300px |Ship caption=Brazil Maru }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Empire of Japan |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Japan|naval}} |Ship name=Brazil Maru |Ship namesake=Brazil |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Kawasaki |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=10 April 1919 |Ship launched= |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed=31 May 1919 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Sunk, 12 May 1945 {{coord|34.666|135.2}} |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship type=Transport |Ship length=117.35 m |Ship beam=15.54 m |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship draft= |Ship depth= 10.97 m |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power=3,858IHP |Ship propulsion= |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed=10/13.6kt |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement= |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament= |Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
Brazil Maru was a Japanese cargo ship requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II as a troop transport and prisoner of war (POW) transport ship.
Japanese POW transport ships are usually referred to as hell ships, due to the notoriously bad conditions aboard and the many deaths that occurred on the ships. The Japanese did not mark their prisoner transports, leading to numerous casualties from friendly fire attacks.{{citation|url=http://www.historynet.com/a-deeper-level-of-hell.htm|title=A Deeper Level of Hell|first=David|last=Aquila|date=September 26, 2011|work=MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History}}
On December 27, 1944 Brazil Maru, along with Enoura Maru, were enlisted to transport the survivors from such an attack, by American forces on {{ship||Oryoku Maru}} in Subic Bay. Although both ships had been hauling livestock, no attempt had been made to clean out the manure prior to the boarding of the prisoners, nor was any food for the prisoners loaded.{{citation|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/winter/hell-ships-1.html|title=American POWs on Japanese Ships Take a Voyage into Hell|first=Lee A.|last=Gladwin|work=Prologue|date=Winter 2003|volume=35|issue=4}} They docked at Takao (now Kaohsiung) in Japanese Formosa on New Year's Day 1945. Enoura Maru was bombed during an American air raid on Takao on January 9, and the surviving prisoners were loaded onto Brazil Maru. It departed on January 14 bound for Moji, where it arrived on January 29. An estimated 500 prisoners died aboard Brazil Maru during the voyage from Takao to Moji, although sources vary.
Brazil Maru was sunk by a mine at Kobe on 12 May 1945.{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/IJN/JANAC-Losses/JANAC-Losses-4.html|website=JAPANESE MERCHANT VESSEL SUNK DURING WORLD WAR II|title=Chronological List of Japanese Merchant Vessel Losses|accessdate=30 August 2016}}
References
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Category:World War II naval ships of Japan