These are the first detailed images of the wreckage of a maritime disaster that claimed the lives of almost 1,000 Australians.
The crystal clear images were taken by an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in the debris field of the prisoner of war (POW) transport the Montevideo Maru, 4,000 metres below the surface of the South China Sea.
They show a Japanese truck upright on the seabed, its tyres buried in silt, and a car with a trailer holding a machine gun.
The ship was torpedoed in July 1942 by a US submarine, about 120 kilometres off northern Philippines. The vessel sank within 11 minutes, and all prisoners on board died. About 20 Japanese crew and guards also died in the sinking.
The prisoners had been held in Rabaul on the island of New Britain and were being taken to the island of Hainan in the South China Sea when the vessel sank.
The vehicles remain in good condition after 80 years in the ocean. Canvas and wood has rotted away, but the metal parts are mostly intact and recognisable.
The discovery of the wreck of the Montevideo Maru was announced on Saturday but the AUV was sent down again from its mothership, the Fugro Equator, to capture closer images.
John Mullen, the director of the Silentworld Foundation, said the wreckage was instantly recognisable as the Montevideo Maru.
"One of the early images was of the foremast which is still standing," he said, "with the crosstrees, with the little bosun's chair made of wire, and the stays still standing. It all matched absolutely perfectly. It was all lump in the throat stuff."
Mr Mullen's Silentworld Foundation worked with the Department of Defence to find and verify the wreckage.
The chair of the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society, Andrea Williams, is aboard the Fugro Equator for the expedition.
Her grandfather Philip Coote was one of the prisoners aboard the Montevideo Maru. She said it was important to remember the captives had been held by the Japanese in Rabaul for five months before they boarded the Montevideo Maru.
"We want to make sure the men are remembered and not forgotten," she said. "What they went through was horrific. By telling their story and by finding the Montevideo Maru the families will know they've not been forgotten."
Former Labor politician Kim Beazley's uncle Sidney was aboard the Montevideo Maru. He said the wreck's discovery will begin a broader understanding of what happened to the POWs.
"Now it will have much more prominence. What will happen now is that that wreck will be filmed more extensively," Mr Beazley, who is chair of the Australian War Memorial council, said.
"It will never be interfered with because it is now a burial ground and we don't interfere with that. But it will be filmed and lots of people have access to that filming."
He said the footage of the ship would be used by the Australian War Memorial and within the education system to help teach children about World War II.
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