The MV Kinai Maru was an 8360 gross ton freighter built by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd, Nagasaki, Japan, in 1930 for Osaka Shosen Kaisha for the Yokohama-New York City cargo run.

[1] Launched on 1 April 1930 and completed on 15 June, she was slated for an express service between Yokohama and New York.

She plied this route until the outbreak of World War II and was requisitioned into Imperial Japanese Navy as a transport in late 1941.

Employed in support of Japan's war effort she participated in landing troops at the battle of Milne Bay.

Stopped in the water, Tatsutake Maru came alongside and started transferring the 4,000 passengers and troops.