On 22 May 1922 (!) received the Dutch naval staff at The Hague, Netherlands from the Dutch embassy at Tokyo, Japan a detailed specification of Japanese merchant ships of minimum 1.500 tons tonnage usable for troop transport over sea on 13 December 1921. If the transport was over a short distance for instance Japan-Philippines or Japan-Chinese harbours was the transport capacity increased with 10% and on a distance within 24 hours even doubled. The figures were supplied by non-Japanese experts, partly based on the troop transports between Japan-China and Japan-Siberia. The transports were kept secret. At that moment was Japan already considered as a potential enemy. For each ship was mentioned how many troops included equipment could be transported over a longer distance, for instance to an island belonging to the Dutch East Indies. In February-March 1942 invaded Japan indeed the Dutch East Indies.(1)
Speed 11.5 miles, net tonnage 4,258 tons, gross tonnage 5,857 tons, transport capacity 1,950 men and owned by Osaka Shosen Kaisha Cargo ship. Coal-fuelled.
Note
1. According to Lloyds Register 1939 and www.combinedfleet.com: laid down as Daifuku Maru No. 15 on 1 September 1917, still on stocks renamed Celebes Maru, launched by Kawasaki Dockyard Co. Ltd., Kobe, Japan on 13 November, completed on 12 December 1917, requisitioned by the Japanese Imperial Navy as troop transport IJA Ship No. 628 on 21 September 1941, call sign JCED, gross tonnage 5,863 ton, under deck tonnage 5,586 ton, net tonnage 4,262 tons and as dimensions 385.0 x 51.0 x 36.0 feet. While used as a troop transport grounded on a rock in the Subunguin Reef off the Bondoc Peninsula, Philippines on 10 November 1944 and on 15 November destroyed by an American aircraft.
Source
Archive Dutch Naval Staff 1886-1942 inventory number 137 (National Archive at The Hague, Netherlands
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