Aug 18 (the-japan-news.com) - A nonprofit organization based in Tokyo plans to identify the resting place of the Battleship Hiei (see below), which sank off the island of Guadalcanal during one of the fiercest battles of World War II.
With the war having ended 72 years ago, many of the ship's former crew members have passed away. The NPO aims to designate the resting place as a "maritime grave-post" to preserve the legacy of the war and the battleship for future generations.
One of the NPO's staff said, "We want to find [the remains of] the Hiei and make it into a place for comforting the spirits of the dead."
A group led by Katsuhiko Ikeda, 71, who runs an underwater survey company in Tokyo, and several others will conduct the research. The group will visit the island in November and search for the ship's remains for nine days.
In March this year, group members conducted preliminary research on the island. They narrowed down the site of the sinking to an area roughly 30 kilometers north of the island by interviewing residents and analyzing ocean currents in the field.
In November, the researchers will intensively survey a roughly 10 kilometer by 10 kilometer zone in the area that they have identified as the likely resting place. They will use high-performance sonar to identify the ship's outline.
The sea is about 500 meters deep in the planned search area. The members plan to reproduce a three-dimensional graphic of the ship using sonar.
