Kanpu Ferry Terminal Ruins (Shimonoseki Port)

The Kanpu Ferry (関釜連絡船, Kanpu Renrakusen) was the primary railway ferry service connecting Shimonoseki, Japan to Busan (Pusan), Korea from 1905 to 1945. Established on September 11, 1905 by the Sanyo Steamship Company as the Gyeongbu Railway line across the Korea Strait was completed, the route quickly became the most important maritime corridor linking the Japanese home islands to the Asian continent. When the Sanyo Railway was nationalized in December 1906, the ferry came under Japanese Government Railways (JGR) administration.

The initial service operated with the vessels Iki Maru and Tsushima Maru (each 1,680 tons), covering the 240-kilometer crossing in approximately 11.5 hours. Over five generations of progressively larger and faster ships were built for the route. By the late 1930s, the Kongo Maru-class vessels (about 7,100 tons) could carry some 1,750 passengers and complete the crossing in just 7.5 hours. The ferry service was integrated with the Japanese railway network — passengers could purchase through tickets from any station in Japan to destinations in Korea, Manchuria, and even Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Following Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910, the route was reclassified from an international to a domestic service. The ferry became the primary conduit for Japan's colonial enterprise: military personnel, colonial administrators, and settlers bound for Manchuria all passed through the Shimonoseki terminal. From the late 1920s to the 1930s, between 80,000 and 150,000 Koreans traveled to Japan annually through this route, many fleeing colonial economic exploitation. During the wartime mobilization period (1939-1945), the ferry was increasingly used to transport Korean forced laborers (朝鮮人強制連行) to Japanese mines, factories, and construction sites. The route became known among Koreans as the "ferry of tears" (涙の連絡船), immortalized in a popular 1938 Korean song.

The ferry service suffered devastating losses during the war. On October 5, 1943, the newest and largest vessel Konron Maru (崑崙丸) was torpedoed and sunk by the American submarine USS Wahoo just six months after its completion, killing 583 passengers and crew. By June 1945, escalating American air raids and the aerial mining campaign (Operation Starvation) that blockaded the Kanmon Strait forced the suspension of regular service. After Japan's surrender, the route operated irregularly to repatriate Koreans to their homeland and return Japanese settlers from the continent, before formally closing on April 12, 1949.

Today, the original railway pier where the Kanpu ferries docked no longer exists, but a stone monument erected in 1969 by the Japanese National Railways Chugoku Branch — titled "関釜・関門航路下関さん橋跡の碑" (Monument to the Kanpu and Kanmon Ferry Routes' Shimonoseki Pier Site) — marks the location. The monument, along with preserved mooring bollards from the original pier, was relocated to Kaikyo Yume Plaza near Shimonoseki Station when the area was redeveloped. It is designated as a quasi-railway memorial (準鉄道記念物). The modern Kampu Ferry service, reestablished in 1970 following Japan-Korea diplomatic normalization, continues to operate between Shimonoseki and Busan from a nearby terminal, maintaining the historical connection across the strait.