HELL SHIPS

They were called “hell ships” with good reason. The conditions were deplorable aboard these ships used by the Japanese to transport Allied prisoners of war from the Pacific to hard labor in Asia. Thousands of men were crammed into a ship’s holds so tightly that they could only stand or crouch. Space was only gradually freed up as men died—which they did by the dozens from suffocation, dehydration, starvation, exposure, and diseases like dysentery. Food was scarce (a cup of raw rice per day if the POWs were lucky, but often much less) and water even scarcer—often limited to only a few spoonful’s worth a day of brackish water or weak tea. The sanitary conditions were disgusting, with human waste covering the floors since the sick men couldn’t make it up to the latrines on deck for their allotted once-daily visit and the waste buckets provided for the holds were filled to overflowing.

But perhaps most tragically of all, the Japanese didn’t paint red crosses on these transport ships to signal there were prisoners of war onboard, so thousands of POWs died when the ships were torpedoed or bombed by the Allies. In fact, an estimated one in three POWs who died in the hands of the Japanese died when their ships sank, and estimates for total POW deaths at sea on Japanese ships range from about 11,000 to 20,000.

Quite a few POWs saw the ships’ sinking as an answer to their prayers. But sometimes the Japanese would cut the rope ladders to the holds and batten down the hatches so that the prisoners would go down with the ships. Fortunately, the POWs were often industrious enough to find ways to still get out. While some men were too sick or dispirited to escape, some of those who made it on deck immediately jumped in the sea, while others searched the ship for food and water. Soon thousands of sick and emaciated men would be in the ocean, gripping whatever flotsam they could find to keep afloat. Sometimes the Japanese would come around and collect them, but more often they were all left to drown. The few who managed to survive and make it to land often just ended back in Japanese hands since their Caucasian features made it nearly impossible to blend in.

Partial List of Hellship Voyages

Year	Ship	Number of POWs	Camp
1942	Nagato Maru	1,500	Osaka Area
1942	Tottori Maru	1,992	Mukden, Tokyo
1942	Shoun Maru	50	Osaka
1942	Tenshin Maru	50	Osaka
1943	Yuzan Maru	6	Taiwan
1943	Clyde Maru	500	Fukuoka
1943	Kohho Maru	883	Fukuoka
1944	Kenwa Maru	200	Hokodate, Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka
1944	Sekiho Maru (Canadian Inventor)	1,024	Osaka, Fukuoka
1944	Hokusen Maru	150	Osaka
1944	Nissyo Maru	1,539	Osaka, Fukuoaka
1944	Hokusen Maru	1,170	Taiwan
1945	Brazil Maru	581	Fukuoka
Ships Which were Sunk and Destroyed, Transporting POWs from the Philippines
Date Sunk	Ship	Number of POWs	Number of Survivors
September 7, 1944	Shinyo	750	200
October 24, 1944	Arisan	1,782	4* (9)
December 14-15 1944	Oryoku see below also	1,619	1,311
January 9, 1945	Enoura	1,311	619

Arisan Maru

On October 11, 1944, the Arisan Maru left Manila with about 1,800 POWs in the cargo holds. The ship turned south and anchored off Palawan until October 20, 1944, when it returned to Manila to join Convoy MATA-30, which was sailed on October 21, 1944. On October 23rd, when the convoy was about 2000 miles northwest of Luzon, two packs of U.S. submarines (total of nine submarines) began their attack on the convoy. About 5:30 PM on October 24, 1944, the USS Shark sent three torpedoes into the Arisan Maru. The ship broke into two sections which floated for a short time, however, the net result was the death for all except nine of the POWs. This was the largest loss of American lives in a single disaster at sea.

Nagato Maru

The Nagato Maru departed Manila on November 7. 1942 with approximately 1,500 prisoners of war aboard. The ship arrived in Japan on November 25, 1942, Seven men died enroute. Another 150 were lined on the deck and were never seen again. Ships of the clss of the Nagata Maru were identified as Kawasaki stock boats or standard steamers. The ship was built in the period 1917-20. The ship had a gross tonnage of approximately 5,780 tons. It was 385 feet long and 51 feet at the beam.

Shinyo Maru

In early 1944, 750 American prisoners of war were transported to Lasang near Mindanao to help that year. American forces were bombing the Lasang area rather heavily. The Japanese command then informed the Americans that they would be leaving the Lasang Area, and on August 20, 1944 they were loaded into the holds of the Tateishi Maru and transported to Zamboanga, Mindanoa. Then they were transferred to the Shinyo Maru. During the transfer to the Shinyo Maru, word was passed among the POWs that the Japanese intended to kill them if the ship was attacked by airplanes or submarines. The POWs were placed at the bottom of the lower compartment. An unusual feature of the ship was that there were two cargo platforms in the upper compartment on each side of the ship and one across the front bulkhead but none at the rear, with a small ladder marking the only way into and out of the hold. On September 5, 1944, in a convoy of five ships with two destroyer escorts, they proceeded to sail northward.

On September 7, at 4:37 p.m., the U.S. submarine Paddle fired four torpedoes at a tanker and two at the freighter, the Shinyo Maru. In the darkness below, the POWs heard a commotion on deck and weapons firing. Moments later the ship shook violently. Some felt two concussions, seconds apart. POWs from the holds climbed on deck to look around whereas the Japanese guards on board began to shoot them indiscriminately. Some of the Americans jumped overboard only to find they were being machine gunned by a nearby ship.