Kinugawa Maru - Bonegi II

Kinugawa Maru — known to divers as Bonegi II — is the companion wreck to the Hirokawa Maru just along the Bonegi coastline of Guadalcanal, and together these two Japanese transports form one of the most concentrated wreck diving experiences in the Solomon Islands. The Kinugawa Maru was another Type 2TL supply transport lost during the desperate Tokyo Express resupply missions of 1942, bombed and strafed by American aircraft while attempting to land men and material on the beach before daylight could expose the ships to further attack. She now lies in slightly deeper water than her sister wreck, offering a complementary experience that rewards divers who explore both sites in a single day. The Kinugawa Maru came to rest in a more complete state than the Hirokawa, and her hull profile is more intact and immediately readable as a ship form. The bow points toward shore and the stern descends to greater depth, creating a dive that accommodates beginner divers on the shallower sections and invites more experienced divers to explore the deeper stern and propeller areas. The orientation means that different aspects of the wreck are illuminated at different times of day, and late morning light filtering through the clear Solomon Islands water creates dramatic theatrical effects on the coral-encrusted hull. Eight decades of tropical marine growth have transformed the Kinugawa Maru into a living reef. The hull is colonised with hard corals and sea fans in the density that the warm, nutrient-rich Iron Bottom Sound waters produce so prolifically. Schools of glassfish fill the holds, hovering in clouds that shift and contract around intruding divers before reforming. Large grouper and snapper have established territorial claims in the compartments and around the main deck structures. Lionfish rest motionless against the coral-encrusted surfaces, their spectacular fins serving as camouflage and warning simultaneously. The historical context of Bonegi II, like its companion wreck, adds depth to the diving experience that pure reef diving cannot provide. The rusting windlass, the cargo crane, the ship's hull plates bent by the violence of the original attack — these are physical records of a battle that shaped the course of the Pacific War. Exploring them slowly, understanding their function aboard a working vessel and the manner of their ending, makes the dive a meditation on history as much as an underwater adventure. For beginner divers visiting the Solomon Islands, the Bonegi wrecks are the defining experience of the country's extraordinary WWII underwater heritage.