HMS Liverpool stops Japan's prestige liner

HMS Liverpool intercepted the 16,500-ton NYK liner Asama Maru close enough to Japan for the action to feel like a direct challenge on the country's doorstep. The ship was a national prestige object as well as a mixed passenger-and-freight liner, making the boarding politically more serious than an ordinary contraband search. Liverpool removed twenty-one of the thirty German merchant seamen among fifty German passengers instead of taking every German aboard. Japan protested the affront and leaned on legal arguments associated with the unratified Declaration of London. Sea control here meant selective coercion against a neutral liner: the passengers' nationality and skills mattered more than the cargo.