Nitta Maru-class cargo liner

The class was designed from the start to be converted, featuring military-grade hull and facilities. These ships were built by Mitsubishi at their Nagasaki shipyard for the shipping lines Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and Osaka Shosen Kaisha (OSK). Their names where chosen to match the "NYK" abbreviation (Nitta Maru, Yawata Maru, Kasuga Maru). Nitta Maru and Yawata Maru were ordered for NYK and both were completed before the beginning of the Pacific War in December 1941. The ships were intended for service to Europe, but the start of World War II in September 1939 restricted them to the Pacific. Kasuga Maru had been ordered by OSK and was fitting out when she was acquired by the IJN in 1940 and towed to Sasebo Naval Arsenal on 1 May 1941 to finish her conversion into an escort carrier. The Nitta Maru-class ships were cargo liners that had a length of , a beam of and a depth of hold of . They had a net tonnage of 9,397 and a cargo capacity of 11,800 tons. They had accommodations for 285 passengers (127 first class, 88 second and 70 third). that gave them an average speed of and a maximum speed of . ==Escort carrier conversion==

The conversion of the Taiyō-class ships, as the former liners were now known, was fairly austere and they were flush-decked escort carriers that displaced at standard load and at normal load. The ships had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . As carriers they had a speed of . The uptakes for the boilers were trunked together into a downward-curving funnel on the starboard side of the hull amidships. Taiyōs crew numbered 747 officers and ratings while her sisters had 850 officers and crewmen. The flight deck was long and wide. The ships had a single hangar, approximately long, served by two centreline aircraft lifts, each . ==Ships==

File:Nitta-maru 1940.jpg|Nitta Maru File:SS Yawata Maru.jpg|Yawata Maru File:Japanese aircraft carrier Taiyō cropped.JPG|Taiyō (Kasuga Maru) as a carrier ==See also==