However, the contents recorded in this notebook also made Yang Jing finally understand that the "Awa Maru Scam" was actually true.
In the eyes of Westerners, when it comes to shipwrecks, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the Titanic. But in the East, especially in China and Japan, when it comes to shipwrecks, the first thing that comes to mind is definitely the Awa Maru.
The Awa Maru was a civilian ocean-going freighter built by the Japanese in early 1943. Although it was a civilian freighter, its displacement exceeded 11,000 tons, and the ship was absolutely built according to military performance and requirements. Regardless of its scale, nature, and performance, it was a true military ship.
Because merchant ships of the same model as this ship have all been converted into light aircraft carriers by Japan, only this ship still has the "commercial" sign, which shows the outstanding performance of this ship.
Are you kidding? An ordinary 10,000-ton merchant ship could run at a speed of 20 knots in that era? An ordinary merchant ship could survive bomb explosions and US torpedo attacks while transporting supplies to the army on the Japan-Singapore route six times, and still not sink? An ordinary merchant ship could be praised by the Japanese military as an "unsinkable ship"?
Isn't this just telling lies with open eyes?
But the Japanese did just that, and they did it so openly. During the period when American warships blockaded the Western Pacific, it was such a military version of a merchant ship that swaggered back and forth between Japan and Singapore, not only transporting a large amount of military supplies to Terauchi Juichi's men, but also transporting the huge amount of wealth that Terauchi Juichi's men had plundered from Southeast Asia to the Japanese mainland.
However, the law of nature is long and wide, and nothing can escape it! It is not that the time has not come yet!
The Awa Maru, which successfully completed six supply and transportation missions, finally suffered retribution from God during its last transportation mission.
Facts have proved that this "unsinkable ship" that the Japanese military had high hopes for was far from the German Navy's real "unsinkable ship" battlecruiser Seydlitz. In the famous Battle of Jutland, this battlecruiser belonging to General Hipper's battlecruiser squadron was hit by a total of eight 15-inch shells, six 13.5-inch shells and eight 12-inch shells, a total of 22 large-caliber shells and one torpedo, but the giant ship did not sink. The Lion-class battlecruiser Queen Mary, which was the opponent of this giant ship, was hit by only seven shells and exploded and sank.
It can be seen that the title of "unsinkable ship" is not something that the small Awa Maru can bear.
Perhaps it was precisely because this military version of a merchant ship was given a title that it should not have been able to bear that, during its last mission, the U.S. Navy's Queenfish and its companion boat Sea Fox used only four torpedoes to sink the Awa Maru in just three minutes!
Along with the Awa Maru, 2008 Japanese also sank. These Japanese deserved it. When the Awa Maru was hit by fish, many Japanese jumped into the sea, but they refused the American rescue. What else could they do? Did they have something to hide, afraid that they would tell some secrets after being rescued by the Americans?
Anyway, except for one person who was rescued, all the passengers on the Awa Maru sank into the depths of the East China Sea. As for people like Lieutenant Colonel Akio Sayama who was on a secret escort mission, who knows how many of them were among the dead passengers.
I guess no one cares how many Japanese died except the Japanese. People are more concerned about the wealth said to be worth 5 billion US dollars that sank with the Awa Maru!
According to a special report in the November-December 1976 issue of the Republican newspaper, the Awa Maru was carrying 40 tons of gold, 12 tons of platinum, 150,000 carats of industrial diamonds, large bundles of banknotes of unknown value, and 40 boxes of artifacts, crafts, and gemstones.
According to Natos, a former observer of the U.S. Marine Laboratory and a member of the National Diving Leadership Team, if the Awa Maru is salvaged, at least $250 million worth of property can be salvaged, and the wealth on the entire Awa Maru is worth more than $5 billion!
According to a report from Formosa on November 21, 1976, when the Awa Maru was sunk, it was carrying 40 tons of gold bars, 12 tons of platinum, 150,000 carats of unprocessed gems, several bundles of U.S., British and Hong Kong currency, 40 boxes of handicrafts, 3,000 tons of tin bars, 2,000 tons of tungsten, 2,000 tons of aluminum bars, 800 tons of titanium, and 2,000 tons of rubber!
On May 2, 1979, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported that your army sergeant Morikawa Iemitsu said that the 26 military trucks loaded on the Awa Maru were all loaded with gold bars...
Anyway, no matter from which angle you look at it, when China was preparing to salvage the Awa Maru in the mid-to-late 1970s, reports from all over the world were saying how much wealth the Awa Maru had carried, and even the legendary Beijing Man's skull fossil was on that ship.
But it turns out that all these reports were nonsense!
The Awa Maru sunk in the East China Sea is a huge fortune, which attracts countless people to explore. For this reason, the United States, Japan and even the British kicked down the door of China, hoping that they could use advanced underwater salvage technology to conduct joint salvage with China and participate in the sharing of salvage. Especially Japan, it was a good time for China and Japan to restore relations. Japan was very enthusiastic about the Awa Maru, but was rejected by China one by one!
Because no matter from which angle you look at it, the Awa Maru belongs to China.
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