This class consists of EDO MARU, HAKUTETSU MARU No. 11, HAKUTETSU MARU No. 13 and HAKUTETSU MARU No. 15, all completed between Nov ‘36 and Dec ’41 for various shipping companies as cargo ships. All were requisitioned: HAKUTETSU MARU No. 11 and HAKUTETSU MARU No. 13 by the IJA as Army transports No. 5541 and No. 845, and EDO MARU and HAKUTETSU MARU No. 15 by the IJN and respectively converted to auxiliary gunboat and auxiliary transport. EDO MARU and HAKUTETSU MARU No. 13 were torpedoed and sunk by US submarines in ’43; HAKUTETSU MARU No. 11 and HAKUTETSU MARU No. 15 both survived the war, the former being dismantled in ’66 and the latter wrecked during a storm in 1955 as TANDA MARU.
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