Eighty years ago in the South Pacific, Japanese forces retreated from Guadalcanal Island, the site of some of the hardest-fought battles during the Pacific War.
The fighting in the Solomon Islands is seen as one of the turning points in favor of the Allies led by the United States against Japan in the Pacific theater of World War II.
A Tokyo-based nonprofit organization is resuming its search for these vessels in April after several warships were sunk off Guadalcanal.
A team of six is conducting the search, led by Katsuhiko Ikeda, the 76-year-old representative of the NPO who is also the president of Tokyo-based underwater survey firm Arc Geo Support Co. The survey will be conducted in waters off northwestern Guadalcanal from April 11 to 17 using the company's underwater sonar equipment.
As well as passing down the memory of the tragic war, I want to record the place where a warship met its final day, Ikeda said.
The survey team will search for the Imperial Japanese Navy's I- 3 submarine using sonar from a boat at sea. The team will hold a memorial service for the crew.
In December 1942, the I- 3, on a mission to transport food to Japanese soldiers who were on the verge of starvation on Guadalcanal, came under attack and was sunk by Allied forces.
A nearby beach served as the point from which retreating Japanese soldiers boarded vessels. It is said that the soldiers discarded their canteens and helmets into the sea to reduce the amount of cargo they had to carry. The team will search for these mementos.
If their names are written on them, there is a possibility that we can inform the bereaved families of the discoveries, Ikeda said.
The survey will cost around 5 million dollars, and part of it has been raised through crowdfunding.
In August 1942, U.S. forces landed on the island to gain a foothold for a counter-offensive against Japan. The Japanese forces deployed about 30,000 troops, but they had difficulty supplying food to them. Around 20,000 soldiers were believed to have died in the war when Japan withdrew from the island in February 1943. Guadalcanal was dubbed Starvation Island as it was the cause of death for many of them, along with malaria.
Japanese forces also lost many vessels and aircraft in the series of battles for the island.
Since 2017 the NPO has conducted three surveys around the island. The first year, the NPO conducted a seabed probe for the Hiei, which sank during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal from November 12 - 15, 1942.
The most recent survey was conducted in 2019 because of the COVID 19 pandemic. The NPO confirmed the locations of five sunken vessels, including finding a hull that is reckoned to be that of the Sasako Maru, which was on the seabed at a depth of approximately 70 meters. The team produced 3 D images of its findings as well.
Warships sunk during the Pacific War have attracted attention in the past few years. In 2015 a hull believed to be the battleship Musashi was found on the ocean floor near the Philippines. In 2017, the U.S. cruiser Indianapolis, which was sunk by a Japanese submarine after transporting parts for the atomic bomb that was later dropped on Hiroshima, was discovered off the Philippines.
The global situation has become more unstable with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but a war can only produce futile results, Ikeda said. The warships lying at the bottom of the sea quietly convey the tragedy brought about by war.