Built as a whaling factory ship in 1936 and used in antarctic waters. In 1941, NISSHIN MARU was requisitioned by the IJN and ordered converted to an auxiliary oiler. NISSHIN MARU was torpedoed and sunk by an American submarine in May 1944. Two very similar but not quite identical sister ships, NISSHIN MARU No. 2 and KYOKUYO MARU, built in 1937 and 1938 respectively, were lost in the war, the first was sunk by explosions from unknown causes (possibly drifting mines from a defensive barrage, although submarine attack was claimed as the cause) off Ishigaki Jima in April 1943, and the second was wrecked at Naze, Amami Oshima 18 September 1943 in a very large typhoon. They were the same as NISSHIN MARU in design except for having two decks of accommodation aft rather than one, as NISSHIN MARU. See KYOKUYO MARU class for more information.
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