Sōya, Museum ship in Aomi, Japan
JCG Sōya is a preserved icebreaker moored permanently at Aomi Kita Port Park on Tokyo Bay. The vessel, 83.3 meters long, displays original equipment and cabins from decades of service at sea.
The ship was built in 1938 under the name Volochaevets for the Soviet Union before passing to Japan. It carried ammunition during World War II and continued postwar service as an icebreaker.
The name Sōya comes from the Sōya Strait, and this was the second naval ship to bear it; the first was the cruiser Varyag, taken from Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. The ship is also remembered for Taro and Jiro, two Karafuto-Ken huskies abandoned on Antarctic ice in 1958 and found alive the next spring, a story retold in the films Nankyoku Monogatari and Eight Below.
Many ship compartments can be entered, including the bridge and engine rooms with original instruments. Panels in the cabins explain the duties and living conditions of former crew members.
In January 1943 the submarine USS Greenling attacked Sōya; the torpedoes missed or failed to explode. The crew hoisted one dud torpedo onto the deck and celebrated, rather than keeping it as a memorial.
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