The Queen of the Pacific: Hikawa Maru

Yamashita Park, Yokohama

“She rode on a ship from Yokohama pier, taken away by a foreigner.” – Akai Kutsu

Yamashita Park in Yokohama, Japan, is a popular waterfront destination, home to the historic luxury passenger liner Hikawa Maru and the famous ‘Little Girl with Red Shoes’ statue.

The Little Girl with Red Shoes

The Little Girl with Red Shoes

Her name is Kimi, and her true story came to life through the song Akai Kutsu (‘Red Shoes’), composed in 1922.

At the age of three, Kimi was given up for adoption by her single mother to an American missionary couple. After contracting tuberculosis, she was unable to make the long journey to America and was instead placed in an orphanage in Tokyo, where she died at the age of nine. Her mother never learned what happened to her and believed that Kimi had gone to America.

“A young girl with red shoes
was taken away by a foreigner.

She rode on a ship from Yokohama pier
taken away by a foreigner.

I imagine right now she has become blue-eyed
living in that foreigner’s land.

Every time I see red shoes, I think of her
And every time I meet a foreigner, I think of her.

When she misses Japan where she was born
I imagine she stares at the blue sea
and asks the foreigner if she can go home.”

Hikawa Maru

Hikawa Maru, nicknamed the ‘Queen of the Pacific,’ is a luxury passenger and cargo liner that operated on the Yokohama–Vancouver–Seattle trans-Pacific route between 1930 and 1960. Today, it is preserved as a museum ship permanently docked at Yamashita Park in Yokohama.

Quick Facts

• Launched on 30 September 1929
• Maiden voyage on 13 May 1930
• Speed: 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h)
• Capacity: 331 passengers
• Art deco interiors
• Notable guest: Charlie Chaplin
• Converted to a hospital ship during the Second World War
• Helped Jewish refugees escape the Holocaust
• Crossed the Pacific Ocean over 250 times carrying 25,000 passengers and cargo

The Ship

Hikawa Maru

Hikawa Maru and pigeons resting on the anchor’s chain

The ship’s chimney and one of the life boats

Window to Yokohama

Window to Yokohama

Hikawa Maru – the wheelhouse and Shinto altar

Anchored!

The Interior

The artdeco interior of Hikawa Maru

The restaurant

The first class dining room

The nursery

Tourist class apartment

First class apartment

The Engines

Hikawa Maru engine room

Engine room

Engine room

Phones

Hikaru Maru data

Comments

“I have just read your post, with great pleasure and interest! In 1953, my family and I boarded the Hikawa Maru in Seattle for the voyage to Yokohama as one of a group of other families, each of which had a Fulbright Scholar in attendance. In our case, it was my dad. My mother chronicled the experience, day by day in her diary, and again in letters sent to my grandparents in the states. My father did the same via camera.

In 2014 I returned to Japan and visited the ship in what was an emotional but fantastic experience. To my delight, my father’s Kodachrome slides of the ship’s interior could have been taken in 2014, so little had changed.

Thank you for your excellent post detailing the ship and its history. I’ve enjoyed it immensely.”

Ann Kennedy – “Haddock and Dill” – Images, recipes, observations and keepsakes from a life well-lived.

Location

• Yokohama, Yamashita Park. No. 1 exit of Motomachi-Chukagai Station on the Minato Mirai Line.

Map

Related

• The 13 best things to do in Yokohama (Lonely Planet)
• Travel Japan – stories and photos