Workers from Terry Dowd Inc., a Chicago-based art handling company, pack up an 11-foot-long intricate exemplar of japanese passenger liner Hikawa Maru at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc on Thursday.
Credit: Mark Hoffman
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Manitowoc — It ‘s an unusual mar of war .
The 11-foot-long mannequin of the Hikawa Maru, a japanese passenger liner pressed into service as a hospital ship during World War II, was confiscated shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It traveled quite a devious route before ending up in Wisconsin, its base for the past 34 years .
After more than seven decades, the 1,700-pound exemplar is returning to Japan .
Built in 1934 a few years after the actual ship was constructed, and sent to North America as a display slice to advertise the Hikawa Maru ‘s trans-Pacific passenger line, the transport mannequin was confiscated by the canadian politics when war broke out .
interim, the actual vessel was pressed into avail as a hospital ship, carrying japanese troops wounded at Midway and early battles. Despite being damaged three times by mines, it was the only japanese liner to survive the war, and afterward it resumed voyages to Seattle and Vancouver until retiring in 1960 and becoming a floating museum in Yokohama, Japan .
Representatives of the Hikawa Maru ‘s transportation agate line, NYK, have sought the exemplary ‘s fall to put it on display at the NYK Maritime Museum in Yokohama .
“ today after 34 years in the collection of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, an iconic model of an iconic ship is going home, ” Museum CEO Rolf Johnson said at a short transfer of ownership ceremony Thursday .
As employees of a Chicago art handling company placed custom-made foam inserts around the hull and removed methamphetamine from the model ‘s display case, Bill Payne, president of NYK Line North America, said the model will be driven to O’Hare International Airport and flown on a cargo jet to Tokyo Friday night.
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“ I ca n’t tell you how excited the NYK executives are to get the model back, ” said Payne. “ It ‘s our deep appreciation to the museum and the citizens of Manitowoc that allowed us to come to this agreement. ”
The model was constructed in Tokyo and shipped to Vancouver in the late ’30s. It was built on a 1/48th scale, meaning one edge of model distance equals 48 inches of the ship ‘s distance .
“ That ‘s very a huge scale for model ships, ” said Jay Wichmann, a member of Wisconsin ‘s Bong chapter of the International Plastic Modelers Society. “ ship offices would constantly have a model of their prize ships but they would be 3, 4 or 5 feet long. This monster of an 11-foot model is an exceeding exercise of ship-making craft. ”
The Hikawa Maru was a long-familiar vessel, with passengers ranging from immigrants heading to Seattle and Vancouver to start new lives to Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein .
The only deviation between the actual ship and the model is the measure of brass fittings. The contingent is exquisite with every winch, deck cleat and bollard in bright scandalmongering brass, said Wichmann, who has made hundreds of models, including three small Hikawa Maru models .
“ The entirely thing that betrays it — they left all the boldness unpainted rather of painting it distinctive white or grey or black. The model makers, to show off all the brass, left it exposed, so it ‘s a agleam model, ” Wichmann said .
The Hikawa Maru was sold in 1951 to a model collector in Vancouver and four years late to a car dealer in Iowa who donated it to the maritime museum in Manitowoc in 1979 .
NYK Lines paid the Wisconsin Maritime Museum for the model, though Johnson declined to say how much, and is handling the embark expenses to Japan.
The Maritime Museum plans to use the space where the Hikawa Maru model was displayed for a larger display on the World War II submarine Cobia. The museum is focusing its displays on Great Lakes nautical history, said Mike Huck, president of the united states of the board of trustees, and it made common sense to give the Hikawa Maru model to a museum in Japan where it will be appreciated .
Before the model left Manitowoc, Wisconsin Maritime Museum officials organized a guest book and adieu card for visitors and community members to write their well wishes to the people of Japan who will soon receive a cultural heirloom .
About Meg Jones
Meg Jones is a general assignment reporter who specializes in military and veterans issues. Meg was part of a team that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2003, and is the author of “ World War II Milwaukee. ”