USS Mindanao (ARG-3) and Yukie Chiri

USS Mindanao (ARG-3) was a Luzon-class internal combustion engine repair ship that saw service in the United States Navy during World War II. Named for the Island of Mindanao, second largest and southernmost island in the Philippines, it was the second U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.

Contents 1 Commission 2 Explosion 3 Post-war and fate 4 References

Commission

Originally built as the Liberty ship SS Elbert Hubbard (MCE-983) under Maritime Commission contract by Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard, Inc. of Baltimore, Maryland; launched 13 May 1943; sponsored by Mrs. C. R. Spalding; acquired by the Navy on 20 May 1943; and commissioned as USS Mindanao (ARG-3) on 6 November 1943 with Commander G. B. Evans in command. After shakedown in Chesapeake Bay, Mindanao joined Task Group 29.7 (TG 29.7) on 20 December 1943, and sailed for Cuba, the Panama Canal, and Nouméa in New Caledonia, arriving 27 January 1944 to report for duty with Service Squadron South Pacific. The internal combustion engine repair ship immediately found herself with more than enough work. On 25 February she sailed to continue her vital task at Espiritu Santo, and in September she arrived at Manus to serve the forces staging for the Philippine campaign. Explosion

Now with TG 30.9, she was anchored in Seeadler Harbor on the morning of 10 November, when at about 08:50 the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) blew up. Mindanao, 350 yards (320 m) away, suffered extensive damage particularly to her superstructure, and aft. Of her crew, 180 were killed or wounded. The survivors, with Seabees from shore, immediately began to aid the wounded and clear the debris, a job which took seven days. Repairs began on the 18th, performed by her own crew with aid again from Seabees, as well as men and equipment from USS Medusa. By 21 December, Mindanao was ready to resume her key function in repairing engines for other ships. After a brief voyage to the Solomon Islands in February and March 1945, Mindanao arrived at Ulithi 27 March to prepare ships for the Okinawa campaign. There she served until 9 October, when she sailed for periods of duty at Okinawa and Shanghai. Post-war and fate

Her duty supporting the occupation forces complete, Mindanao got underway for home 26 March 1946. She called at San Pedro, California; Balboa and Colón in the Panama Canal Zone; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Galveston, Texas, before arriving Orange, Texas on 12 July. She decommissioned there 17 May 1947 to join the Reserve Fleet, and remained at Orange even after being struck from the Naval Vessel Register and transferred to the Maritime Commission in 1961. In September, 1962 she joined the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Beaumont, Texas where she remained into 1969. Salvage and rescue work underway on USS Mindanao (ARG-3) shortly after the USS Mount Hood (AE-11) blew up about 350 yards (320 m) away. Note the heavy damage to Mindanao '​s hull and superstructure, including large holes from fragment impacts. View looks forward from alongside her port quarter. Mindanao had 180 crewmen killed and injured by this explosion. She was under repair until 21 December 1944. Small craft alongside or nearby include (from left) YPB-6 (probable identification), two LCVPs and YPB-7.

In 1980, the ex-Mindanao was scuttled to form an artificial reef off Daytona Beach, Florida, in 85-foot-deep (26 m) water at 29°12.00′N 80°44.87′W / 29.20000°N 80.74783°W / 29.20000; -80.74783Coordinates: 29°12.00′N 80°44.87′W / 29.20000°N 80.74783°W / 29.20000; -80.74783, 11 miles (18 km) northeast of Ponce de León Inlet.

Yukie Chiri and USS Mindanao (ARG-3)

Yukie Chiri (知里 幸恵, Chiri Yukie?, June 8, 1903 – September 18, 1922) was a Japanese transcriber and translator of Yukar (Ainu epic tales).

She was born into an Ainu family in Noboribetsu, a town in Hokkaidō, the northernmost prefecture of Japan, at a time in Japan's history when increasing immigration of Japanese (Wajin, as distinguished from the Ainu) to Hokkaidō was resulting in the Ainu being relocated into separate communities and, in many cases, their means of livelihood being taken from them. The Japanese outlawed bear sacrifice as cruel, and stigmatized other cultural differences. The Ainu were viewed as a backward people, and it was the policy of the government to assimilate them into the Japanese way of life. The Ainu themselves, for the most part, saw this as the best (and perhaps only) way to survive the changing times (Sjoberg 1993, Kayano 1980). Chiri herself expressed more astonishment than resentment. She wrote, "In a twinkling the natural landscape as it had been since the ancient past has vanished; what has become of the folk who joyfully made their living in its fields and mountains? The few of us fellow kinspeople who remain simply stare wide-eyed, astonished by the state of the world as it continues to advance." (Strong 2011)

Chiri was sent to her aunt Imekanu in Chikabumi, on the outskirts of Asahikawa, when she was six years old, presumably to lessen the financial burden on her parents. Imekanu lived with her aged mother, Monashinouku, a seasoned teller of Ainu tales who spoke very little Japanese. Chiri thus grew to be completely bilingual in Japanese and Ainu, and had a familiarity with Ainu oral literature that was becoming less and less common by that time. Although she had to endure bullying in school, she excelled in her studies, particularly in language arts. But she suffered from an ethnic inferiority complex that afflicted many of her generation (Fujimoto 1991).

Contents 1 Work 2 Legacy 3 References 4 External links

Work

Chiri was in her mid-teens when she first met Japanese linguist and Ainu language scholar Kyōsuke Kindaichi during the nation's Taishō period. He was traveling around Hokkaidō in search of Ainu transmitters of oral literature, and had come to seek out Imekanu and Monashinouku. Upon meeting Chiri, who was still living with Imekanu, Kindaichi immediately recognized her potential and spoke to her about his work. When Kindaichi explained the value he saw in preserving Ainu folklore and traditions to Chiri, she decided to dedicate the rest of her life to studying, recording, and translating yukar (Kindaichi 1997).

Kindaichi eventually returned to Tokyo, but sent Chiri blank notebooks so she could record whatever came to mind about Ainu culture and language. She chose to record the tales her grandmother chanted, using romaji to express the Ainu sounds, and then translated the transcribed yukar into Japanese. Eventually, Kindaichi persuaded her to join him in Tokyo to assist him in his work collecting and translating yukar. However, only months after arriving in Tokyo and on the same night she completed her first yukar anthology, she suddenly died from heart failure. She was only nineteen years old (Fujimoto 1991). Legacy

Chiri's anthology was published the following year under the title Ainu Shinyōshū (A Collection of the Ainu Epics of the gods). Although her patron Kindaichi and series editor Kunio Yanagita must have taken the late Chiri's manuscript to press, they did not put their names anywhere on it; the preface and content are written entirely by her. Her book contains both Japanese translations and, invaluably, the original Ainu, in Roman script. It received great popular acclaim in the period press, creating a newfound respect for Ainu culture among Japanese, and remains the most important source for yukar today.

Her younger brother, Chiri Mashiho, later pursued his education under Kindaichi's sponsorship and became a respected scholar of Ainu studies. Imekanu also continued the work of transcribing and translating yukar.
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