This class consists of HIYOSHI and HOKOKU MARUs, both completed in 1936 for different shipping companies. Both were requisitioned by the IJN, HIYOSHI MARU in Dec ’41, renamed that same month HIYOSHI MARU No. 2 GO and converted to an auxiliary gunboat before being re-rated as an auxiliary transport in Oct ’43; HOKOKU MARU in Sep ’39, converted that same month to an auxiliary gunboat before being rerated as an auxiliary tanker in Feb ’45. Both were bombed and sunk by American carrier-based aircraft respectively in Feb and Jul ’45.
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