Oryoku Maru, Japanese hell ship sunk December 1944

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.

Brazil Maru, Japanese hell ship

The following are links to gripping first-hand accounts of life on and the sinking of hell ships (“Maru” was the Japanese designation for merchant ships):

-Accounts of James McHarg Miller and Alf Hunt, onboard the Lisbon Maru, which was torpedoed by the USS Grouper on 1 October 1944 and sank with 846 out of 1,816POWs.

-Account of Willen Wanrooy, onboard the Junyo Maru, torpedoed by the HMS Tradewind on 18 September 1944. Out of the 6,343 POWs and Javanese slaves onboard, 5,620 died.

-Account of A.G. James, onboard the Singapore Maru, where over 100 POWs died from the terrible conditions of the ship on the month-long journey.

-Accounts of Philip Brodsky, Calvin Graef, and Donald Meyer, onboard the Arisan Maru, torpedoed by the USS Snook on 24 October 1944. 1,795 POWs out of 1,800 died.

-Account of Cecil Peart, onboard the Oryoku Maru. After the Oryoku Maru was sunk by American planes in December 1944, the prisoners were transferred to the Enoura Maru, which was then sunk by an American bomber. Only 490 of the original 1,619 survived.

Read more about hell ships on the websites for the National Archives Prologue magazine or World War II magazine. Or for more information on the sinking of these ships, browse through Fold3’s collection of WWII War Diaries and WWII Submarine Patrol Reports.

Japanese Hell Ships