THE HELL SHIPS
As early as the fall of 1942, the Japanese began moving
prisoners of war out of the Philippines by sea.
Japan, Formosa, Manchuria, Korea . . . eventual destinations
for the nightmarish voyages aboard “Hell Ships.” In 1944, as
the allies drew closer, the Japanese began moving POWs out
of the Philippines by the thousands. Hundreds, and
sometimes, a thousand and more prisoners were crammed into
cargo holds — spaces only big enough for a quarter that
number — oftentimes with only enough room to sit for a
journey that would last weeks. Never enough buckets for
their waste, and with hundreds of dysentery cases, the
healthy succumbed. Deprived of air and water and exposed to
intoxicating heat, men suffocated or went mad.
Ships carrying prisoners of war went unmarked and were
targeted by American submarines. One in every three
prisoners of the Japanese who died in captivity died at sea.
On September 7, 1944, American torpedoes found their target
in the Shinyo Maru. As the prisoners fought their way off
the sinking ship, they were fired on coming out of the holds
or in the water. Of the 750 Americans who began the voyage,
only 83 made it to shore, with one man dying on the beach.
One of the worst maritime disasters in American history — On October
24, 1944, the Arisan Maru, with 1,782 American prisoners on
board, was torpedoed during a typhoon. That night over 100
New Mexicans were lost, including brothers Dwayne and Eugene
Davis of Carlsbad. Calvin Graef of the 200th was one of only
9 survivors of the sinking. Five of those men made it
to freedom, including Graef, the other four recaptured by
the Japanese.
On December 14, 1944, the Oryoku Maru put to sea.
Transporting Japanese soldiers, civilians, and 1,619
prisoners of war out of Manila, the ship suffered repeated
attacks from American fighters that day. That night, the
soldiers and civilians were put ashore leaving behind the
prisoners and their guards. Returning to finish the Oryoku
on the 15th, fighters from USS Hornet loosened bombs that
killed approximately 300 prisoners of war. The survivors
were rounded up and held in an open enclosure for five days
with almost no food until they were transported in two
groups to San Fernando by truck. Several of the weaker
prisoners were “selected” for execution. On Christmas Day,
the survivors were loaded onto the Enoura Maru and the
Brazil Maru. The ships arrived in Takao (Formosa) on New
Year’s Eve, and remained in port for the next six days with
the prisoners still on board who received no food and little
to no water. The men from the Brazil Maru were then
transferred to the Enoura Maru. On January 9, 1945, 300
prisoners died when the Enoura Maru was bombed. Of those
killed, approximately 200 prisoners in the forward hold were
killed instantly. On January 11th, the remaining Enoura
survivors were loaded onto the Brazil Maru which did not
head to sea until January 14th. The Brazil made port in Moji
(Japan) on January 29, 1945 with only 435 of the original
1,619 prisoners of war who began the long ordeal onboard the
Oryoku Maru a month and a half earlier. Within weeks, one
hundred more men would perish. Only 19 of the 43 New
Mexicans who had originally embarked on the Oryoku Maru
survived.
Already having survived unimaginable horrors in Japanese
prisoner of war camps, some the Bataan Death March, and up
to a month and more aboard a Hell Ship, prisoners arrived in
the north with little clothing, and in November and
December, many fell ill with pneumonia due to exposure.
Those that survived were put to work to support the Japanese
war effort as slave laborers where each act of sabotage was
a small victory. They were Americans after all, their heads
“bloody, but unbowed!”
© 1998-2016, BCMFofNM, Inc.
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“Ride the Waves to
Freedom,” the story of Calvin Graef, one of
five soldiers who survived the sinking of
the Arisan Maru, by Melissa Masterson, and
“The December Ship - A Story of Lt. Col.
Arden R. Boellner’s Capture in the
Philippines, Imprisonment, and Death on a
World War II Japanese Hellship,” by his
daughter Betty (Boellner) Jones, are among a
small group of books written on the New
Mexican POW experience. |
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