The vessel did not have a flight deck like Akitsu Maru of the same type.

[2] Nigitsu Maru was a passenger liner taken over before completion and refitted by the Imperial Japanese Army.

On 9 January 1944 Nigitsu Maru left Palau for Ujina in convoy FU-901 as the sole merchant ship escorted by the destroyer Amagiri.

She carried about 2,000 troops, mainly soldiers of the 12th Independent Engineer Regiment.

Three days later off the Okino-Daito Island, southeast of Okinawa, Nigitsu Maru was attacked by the US submarine Hake which fired four torpedoes from the surface.