Express
The emerging hulks are the remains of the 24 Japanese transport vessels captured by the US Navy in the spring of 1945 at the end of World War 2 and deliberately scuttled off the western coast of the island to form a port. During that time, the island had no serviceable port facilities, so the sunken vessels were used as a breakwater to protect others unloading men and supplies for troops during the battles with the Japanese. Their blueprint had been to form an artificial naval base to support a huge US military base on the island prior to the assault on mainland Japan.