Before the war she was a luxury liner making trips all over the world. Even these everyday heavy gauge paper menus were beautiful, with a beautiful wood block looking scene depicted.
They were so well made, they were also used as a postcard. This can be seen on the back of the menu.
On December 2nd, 1941 she departed Yokohama for San Francisco via Honolulu to bring back Japanese citizens wishing to return to Japan. But actually the voyage was part of a hoax. The captain had received orders that he would receive important instructions December 8th (December 7th on the U.S. side of the date line) which he had to obey.
Just after the attack on Pearl Harbor the captain received instructions to turn around and return to Yokohama. The whole trip was only to maintain the illusion that relations between Japan and the U.S. were normal up to the Pearl Harbor attack.
During the war she was used as a troop ship and made trips all over the Pacific, going to most of Japans military bases there. (Her whole schedule and history is listed on the internet if you Google her name)
In July 1942 she was part of a diplomatic exchange between Japan and England (As Americas ally, Japan & Britain were also at war) for British internees and Japanese over seas diplomats, with some supplies thrown in as part of the deal.
In January 1943 she left Hong Kong for Japan carrying 1,180 Japanese troops and 663 Canadian POW's. The POW's were sent to Kawasaki where they were put to work mining coal.
In February 1943 she left Yokosuka for Truk Lagoon / Island (Japans Main Naval base in the Pacific) with the Japanese destroyer "Yamagumo" as an escort. She had 1,223 troops and passengers and 198 crewmen. 42 miles from Mikura island just after 10:00 at night, she was hit by four torpedoes from the U.S. Submarine, USS Tarpon (SS-175). Because it was dark, they were in a storm and because the Tatsuta Maru was about 1500 meters ahead of the Yamagumo. The Yamagumo was unable to find any survivors.
In March 1943, she was removed from the Japanese Navy list.
This is a piece of history.
We are selling our collection of these menus.
We have more than one listed, each is a different day menu / postcard.
Take a look at our other listings.