High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Yawata Maru was a Japanese ocean liner owned by Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The ship was built in 1938-1940 by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. at Nagasaki, Japan. The vessel's pre-war design anticipated passenger service; but when work was completed, the onset of war had created somewhat different priorities.The vessel was created as a sister ship of the Kasuga Maru, and the Nitta Maru. None of the three survived the Second World War. Each in succession was re-fitted as a troopship; and each was later converted to an aircraft carrier. In 1941, Kasuga Maru was re-commissioned as the Japanese aircraft carrier Taiy? and in late 1942, the Nitta Maru was recommissioned as the Japanese aircraft carrier Ch?y?.