Throughout the ancient and modern times, there are all kinds of strange things in the world, but there is one thing that is still difficult to explore the truth, it is a Japanese giant ship that sank into the sea 79 years ago...
01 "Awa Maru"
In the 1940s, Japan built a huge cruise ship called the Awa Maru, which was 155 meters long, 20 meters wide, 13 meters deep, and had a total tonnage of 11,249 tons.
Originally, the Japanese cruise ship was designed to transport relief supplies at sea because its speed was very fast and could quickly solve the shortage of personnel and supplies at sea.
However, at any time, the giant ship took shape, and they were no longer willing to use the "Awa Maru" only for material rescue, and began to hope that it would become a warship in the true sense.
Unfortunately, such a dream was shattered.
In the early 1940s, the United States occupied most of Japan's coastal areas, and for the sake of peace between the two countries, the two sides took a step back and reached an agreement.
In the agreement, the United States said: "Japan's Awa Maru cruise ship may be the only cruise ship that travels freely in the Pacific Ocean, but only people and supplies are allowed." ”
In this regard, the Japanese side is both happy and worried, happy that after the United States makes a commitment, the travel of the "Awa Maru" can be exempted from the security inspection of the US military, and the Japanese side can privately load some ammunition and war materials to transport to the front line.
Unfortunately, such concerns did not last long.
02 Shipwreck
In 1943, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Japanese army was ready to use the "Awa Maru" to load a cart of military supplies to Hong Kong, but the giant ship never returned from the sea.
What's going on?
On February 17, the Awa Maru departed from Moji Harbor in Japan, and is expected to arrive safely in Hong Kong on the 5th, and then return.
What people did not expect was that on the way back from the "Awa Maru", they actually encountered the US troops, and the US troops broke their previous promises and forced them to stop.
At first, the captain did not pay much attention to this stop, after all, the "Awa Maru" was a well-known "unsinkable ship" in Japan.
However, just as the Awa Maru was moving safely and steadily according to the predetermined route, a sudden impact caused the hull of the Awa Maru to shake violently.
In the shaking, the captain's eyes widened in disbelief: how is it!
Who is it, it is the "queen fish" of the US military, this submarine fights in the Pacific Sea all year round, and its power should not be underestimated.
It is also true that after the Queen Fish attacked the Awa Maru, only 3 minutes later, the Awa Maru sank into the sea.
Soon, the surface of the Pacific Ocean was instantly filled with corpses, 2008 people died, and only 1 person survived the whole ship.
According to the only survivor, "On the night of April 1, a bank manager's wife had just given birth to a baby girl on the ship, and she didn't think that the child had not had time to see the world, and it sank forever with the shipwreck." ”
At that time, when Japan learned of this news, it could no longer bear it anymore and began to confront the United States in person in a military court.
03 The scene of the confrontation is full of doubts
At this time, the Japanese side ignored one thing: since the United States could accurately defeat the "Awa Maru", it was naturally able to have its own excuses and methods to retreat in this shipwreck.
Indeed, in the US military tribunal, the head of the US side claimed:
"The sea was foggy, almost nothing could be seen, and could only be judged by sonar, and the sonar signal showed that it was a warship coming in, and they could only attack, and only after the attack did they find out that it was the Awa Maru."
This remark by the US side not only washed away its responsibility, but also implicitly accused the Japanese military of using the "Awa Maru" for weapons delivery.
Naturally, the Japanese side did not believe a word in the defense of the US side, but the Japanese side even more wondered why these mysterious cargoes and personnel were secretly boarded from Singapore, but why was it suddenly mastered by the US side?
In fact, this can find some clues from the survivors' memories, according to survivors: "When the Awa Maru sailed out of Singapore, he saw through the window that some U.S. aircraft were flying at low altitudes. ”
Perhaps this is a conspiracy that has been designed for a long time, but unfortunately, Japan is also weak-minded.
Therefore, at the scene of this confrontation, the Japanese side did not mention anything about other matters except for casualties, and even, in order to quickly pass through this time, it also proposed that the Us side only demand that the United States be responsible for the more than two thousand Japanese people who died tragically in the shipwreck, and the material compensation on board could be suspended.
Seeing Japan's chatter, the Us side once again said: During the shipwreck, they discovered that it was the "Awa Maru", and they also helped the Japanese who wrecked the ship in time, but the Japanese completely ignored our rescue and even asked to sink into the sea with the "Awa Maru".
Listening to the explanation of the US side, perhaps the same idea has popped up in people's hearts: in public and private, this shipwreck incident seems to have nothing to do with the United States.
However, Japan, no matter how much, still does not ask for compensation.
In the face of Japan's intransigence, the US side gradually lost patience, ostensibly claiming to be responsible for the accident, but in fact it had already secretly made preparations to attack Japan.
04 Secretly "Acting"
In April 1945, the United States began the Battle of Okinawa, forcibly opening Japan's southern gate with bomb cannons in preparation for an attack on it.
At this time, Japan was losing the War of Resistance Against Japan, and it was unexpected that the family was attacked by the US army.
Faced with internal and external troubles, Japan had to start backing down.
On August 10, Japan said in a re-negotiation with the United States that as long as the United States is willing to pay $720,000 as a pension for the 2,008 victims, no other damage will be pursued.
Naturally, the money that Japan claimed from the United States would not go to the families of those killed, but wanted to continue to invest in weapons, and they were lucky that they could fight to the death in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
However, at that time, the United States had run out of patience, and Japan challenged the bottom line of the United States again and again.
In August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs into Japan.
With the sound of the atomic bomb, the Second World War also began to end, and Japan, as the victorious country in the First World War, is now extremely depressed.
On August 15, Japan also announced its unconditional surrender in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and fled back to its own country in ashes.
Japan, which lost both battles, was visibly depressed economically and militarily, but he made no claim for compensation to the United States.
05 Nixon's "Gift" from His Visit to China
There is a famous military saying that "there are no eternal friends, no eternal enemies, only eternal interests."
Seeing Japan's decline and defeat in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the United States began to plan the opening of peaceful diplomatic relations with New China and strengthen its own strength.
In 1972, US President Richard Nixon officially visited China, and in order to show his sincerity in establishing diplomatic relations with China, he specially brought a special gift.
The gift is a film about the Awa Maru, which shows the Japanese carrying a lot of supplies in the port of Singapore, including 40 tons of gold, 12 tons of platinum, about 40 boxes of jewelry, and even thousands of tons of grain, which may be worth more than $5 billion.
However, these things all sank into the sea overnight.
Moreover, during the screening of the film, the Chinese person in charge vaguely saw a familiar object, which is a cultural relic belonging to our country - "Peking Man Skull Fossil".
This discovery surprised all the Chinese present, and compared with other gold and silver, the discovery value of the "Peking Man Skull Fossil" is far incalculable.
The appearance of the film undoubtedly rekindled the hope of Chinese to find the "fossil skull of the Peking man", hoping that this thing that belonged to his own country could return to China as soon as possible.
In addition, in addition to the content shown in the film, the US side also revealed a message to China, which further corroborated the Japanese people's lack of heart at that time.
When the United States recovered the remains of the Awa Maru, they found the ship's automatic detonation device, and the Japanese seemed to have already figured out a way out for the ship's belongings.
In the face of all the evidence from the United States, China decided to salvage the mysterious warship by luck, in case it could retrieve the lost artifacts.
06 Salvage history
Beginning in 1977, China began sending troops to salvage the sea east of Niushan Island in Pingtan County, Fujian Province.
Originally, people did not have great hopes for this matter, but they did not think that there were some small gains at the beginning.
When the Chinese army first began to go into the sea to salvage, it found a jade seal and a round stone, and the inscription on it was obviously Chinese.
Judging from the font and literal content, these two cultural relics are burial memorials belonging to some high-ranking officials and nobles in early China, which is of great value.
The small results of the early salvage have further strengthened China's search for "Peking Man Skull Fossils", and perhaps as long as it is relentlessly salvaged, it will be successfully recovered.
However, the reality was not as smooth as expected, and some effective items were not found in China's later salvage process.
At that time, China even began to wonder if its fishing technology was too backward to find items sinking into the deep sea.
Although the road ahead is difficult, in order to find the whereabouts of the "Peking Man Skull Fossil", we will not give up lightly.
Soon after, under the order of the central authorities, the Ministries of Navy, National Defense, and Communications all threw themselves into the salvage work, and all the staff members also worked all night and slept and forgot to eat for the country's cultural relics.
In this way, from 1977 to 1982, China had almost nothing to gain from the salvage of the sea, let alone the "fossil skull of the Peking man".
This disappointed China and even began to doubt the original intention of the United States to pass on the news to itself "kindly".
07 Speculation on the truth
With the salvage almost complete, the Chinese have still not found the 40 tons of gold and jewelry shown in the so-called video provided by the United States.
So, where did the 40 tons of gold go?
In fact, putting aside all this and looking back, if there really is such a huge batch of goods, how can it disappear?
There are many speculations about the secrets of what happened in Singapore in 1943 and the truth about the Awa Maru.
Some people think that the Japanese have always had the idea of "success if you don't succeed", perhaps because they were worried that the goods on the ship would fall into the hands of others, they pressed the blast button at the last moment of the shipwreck.
The gold and silver jewelry on the "Awa Maru", including many cultural relics, were destroyed in the explosion, and after so many years, there is naturally no trace.
However, some people believe that all this is controlled by the United States, and they are only trying to confuse the public opinion and to contain the development of new China.
If the United States really has this intention, then they are really very wrong, in the years of fishing for the "Awa Maru" in Fujian, China has not wasted time, but there are many unexpected gains.
In addition, due to the accumulation of many salvage experience, but also gradually cultivated a number of professional salvage team, this major harvest in the history of China's development played a major role, how much gold and silver can not be surpassed.
In fact, up to now, the truth of the "Awa Maru" is not very important, the most important thing is the experience and reflection left by this incident.
Today's Chinese people have long understood that only the prosperity and strength of the country is our most precious wealth and the most powerful weapon for us to resist foreign enemies.
Resources
China Times
The Awamaru Incident: 360 Encyclopedias