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The 8,145-ton vessel is the primary vessel〔http://www.maff.go.jp/e/quake/press_110331-8.html〕 of the Japanese whaling fleet and is the world's only whaler factory ship. It is also the largest member, and flagship of the five member whaling fleet, headed by research leader ''Shigetoshi Nishiwaki'', and is based in Japan in Shimonoseki harbor. The ship is owned by Tokyo-based company Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd which is a subsidiary of the Institute of Cetacean Research.〔http://sprite.msn.com/assets/Media_Center/Press_Releases/asset_upload_file187_51771.pdf January 21, 2011〕 == History == There have been several Japanese factory whaling ships named ''Nisshin Maru''. After the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor in December 7, 1941, all Japanese factory ships soon began to serve in the war effort till sunk or till the end of World War II in 1945. *''Nisshin Maru'' (16,764 tons), commissioned on 1936, was a whaling factory ship built by Taiyo Gyogyo K. K. from a purchased blueprint of the Norwegian factory ship "Sir James Clark ROSS". This ''Nisshin Maru'' was sunk by the submarine ''USS Trout'' at Balabac Straight, Borneo on May 16, 1944.〔〔 *''Nisshin Maru No. 2'' (17,579 tons) built by Taiyo Gyogyo K. K., was commissioned in 1937 and was damaged in February 7, 1943 by two torpedoes fired from the ''USS Trout''.〔〔 One Japanese historian reports that it was then towed and scrapped South of Ishigaki Island on April 16, 1943,〔 while an American source reports that this tanker was sunk in May 6, 1944 by three torpedoes fired from the ''USS Crevalle'' submarine. General Douglas MacArthur, as military governor of Japan in 1945, encouraged the defeated Japan to continue whaling in order to provide a cheap source of meat to its starving people, and millions of dollars in oil for the USA and Europe. The Japanese whaling industry quickly recovered as MacArthur authorized the commission of two converted T2 tankers as whaling factory ships (''Hashidate Maru''〔(IJN Hashidate Maru: Tabular Record of Movement. ) Imperial Japanese Navy Page (2008)〕 and ''Nisshin Maru No. 1''),〔 to once again take whales in the Antarctic and elsewhere.〔〔 *''Nisshin Maru No. 1'' (11,803 tons) was originally a standard T2 oil tanker built in the United States during WWII. It was reconstructed by Taiyo Gyogyo K. K. in 1945 and commissioned as a Japanese whaling factory in 1946.〔 ''Nisshin Maru No. 1'' was commissioned until the 1950/51 season. After mooring for three years, she reemerged as the factory ''Kinjo Maru'' (11,051 tons) and worked from 1954 to 1964. *''Nisshin Maru'' (16,777 tons) was a new whaling factory ship constructed in 1951.〔 It was commissioned in the 1951/52 season to replace the ''Nisshin Maru No. 1'' that was being refitted.〔 The ''Nisshin Maru'' stopped her activity as a whaling factory from the 1969/70 season. After being decommissioned from the whaling business, it worked as an oil tanker supplying fuel oil for fishing vessels on the high seas, and was then sold to the People's Republic of China in April 1973.〔 *''Nisshin Maru No. 2'' In 1957, Taiyo Gyogoy K. K. purchased the ''Abraham Larsen'' (23,326 tons) from the Republic of South Africa, fitted it out and renamed it the ''Nisshin Maru No. 2'' (27,035 tons).〔 ''Nisshin Maru No.2'' was the first ship to be decommissioned as a whaling factory from the beginning of the 1965/66 season, and worked thereafter as the mother ship of a fish meal factory in the North Pacific and Bering Sea.〔 *''Nisshin Maru No. 3'' The ship was built in 1947 by Gotaverken Cityvarvet of Sweden and was originally named ''Kosmos III'' (18,047 tons).〔(NISSHIN MARU NO.3 – 5253494 – WHALE FACTORY ). ''Maritimr Connector''.〕 It was sold in 1961 to Taiyo Gyogyo K. K., fitted it and changed her name to ''Nisshin Maru No. 3'' (23,106 tons).〔 It is now decommissioned from whaling.〔(Nisshin Maru No. 3 – decommissioned )〕 *''Nisshin Maru'' The latest ''Nisshin Maru'' (8,030-tons) was built by Hitachi Zosen Corporation Innoshima Works and launched in 1987 as the ''Chikuzen Maru''.〔 Then it was purchased by Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd, fitted and commissioned as a whaler factory ship. it remains a whaler factory ship and is contracted by the Institute of Cetacean Research. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nisshin Maru」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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