Will artefacts of sunken Japan ship give new voice to WWII tragedy?

More than 80 years after her mother narrowly survived the sinking of the steamer Tsushima Maru, Tsugiko Taira says the wreck still carries profound meaning and believes artefacts recovered from the seabed could give new voice to one of the worst civilian maritime tragedies of World War II.

Taira, director of the Tsushima Maru Memorial Museum in Okinawa, says the renewed discussion has reopened a long-running debate over how the wreck should be treated – as an underwater grave and archaeological site, or as a source of tangible evidence that could deepen public understanding of the war’s human cost.

She believes that carefully retrieving objects linked to some of the 1,484 passengers and crew who died – including more than 1,000 children who were being evacuated from Okinawa to mainland Japan ahead of the Allied invasion – will serve as powerful reminders of the disaster and reinforce calls for peace.

“Personally, I believe that recovering even a small number of items that have lain on the seabed for more than 80 years will serve as further evidence of the Tsushima Maru incident,” Taira told This Week in Asia.

“However, I do harbour concerns that any recovered items might undergo changes or accelerated deterioration when moved from their underwater state to land.”