1931 menu from the HAKUSAN MARU

menu

Dinner menu for July 17, 1931 aboard the HAKUSAN MARU. This liner owned by Japan's NYK line sailed routes from Japan to Europe. The menu backgound is a print of Japanese woodblock artist Ohara Koson's "Japanese Waxwings on Branch with Berries." The food options on the menu are Western dishes and many seem to be rather British. Interestingly, there are no Japanese options. At the bottom, there is a note that "clocks will be put back 30 minutes tonight." The back of the menu is designed to fold up as a mailer, with a map of the NYK Line's worldwide routes and a print of NYK Line's two stripe flag. Like many Japanese ships, the HAKUSAN MARU was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1942, and it was torpedoed and sunk by a United States submarine, the USS FLIER, on June 4, 1944.