On 24 August 1945, while on a trip to repatriate Koreans in the wake of World War II, it exploded and sank in the harbor of Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture.

The Imperial Japanese Navy requisitioned it in September 1941 and primarily employed it on a routing between Aomori and Hakodate, connecting the main islands of Honshu and Hokkaido.

[2] The Japanese government officially reported that Ukishima Maru struck an American mine in Maizuru Harbor and exploded, but the accuracy of the report was contested by numerous Koreans including the survivors from the incident,[1] who viewed the explosion as a deliberate action by the Japanese imperial government.

[4] Kang Yi-sun, also the survivor from the incident, stated that he witnessed many Japanese marines on the ship strangely running to the engineering room and disappearing prior to the explosion.

[7] Part of the reason for the discrepancy, according to historian Mark Caprio, is that the official numbers did not count bodies that sunk with the ship.

"[8] In 1965, Japan and South Korea signed a Treaty of Basic Relations that established a $364 million compensation fund for victims of colonial occupation.

In 2001, the Kyoto District Court ordered the Japanese government to pay ¥45 million to 15 South Koreans, including the survivors and relatives of the victims from the incident, ruling that the Japanese government had failed in its duty to transport passengers safely, but rejected the demands for official apologies and return of the victims' remains.

[2] In December 2022, citizens' groups from Tokyo, Maizuru, and Aomori petitioned the Japanese government to return the victims' remains at Yutenji to Korea.

[7] An annual memorial service was held in Maizuru starting in 1954, and a monument to the tragedy was sculpted by a local Japanese schoolteacher between 1977 and 1978.