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© Bataan Corregidor Memorial Foundation of New Mexico, Inc. A 501-(c)-3 corporation. |
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Mukaishima, Hiroshima POW Sub-camp No. 4
These 100 American prisoners of war were transported out of the Philippines to Japan along with 935 other POWs on board the Hell Ship Noto Maru in August 1944. One having died, on 18 August 1945 at 11:00am, the surviving ninety-nine Americans raised a homemade flag in Mukaishima prisoner-of-war camp accompanied by “To the Colors” blown on a confiscated Japanese bugle. The Flag was thereafter raised daily until their liberation by American forces on September 13, 1945. The flag was the FIRST American flag to fly over Japan following surrender.
The inscription on one of the plaques of the Japan-United Kingdom Friendship Monument, dedicated in March 2002 to the 23 British prisoners of war who died at Mukaishima states, “In November 1942, 100 British aircraftmen were brought here from Indonesia. Of these, 23 became ill and died.” It goes on to say that “In September 1944, 116 American soldiers were brought here from the Philippines.”
On August 8, 1945, the ‘Nip Clipper’, a B-29 Superfortress belonging to the 5th Sqdn. 9th BG 313th Wing of the 20th AF based at Tinian, was shot down 100 miles west of Kyushu. Ten survivors drifted at sea until August 14th when they were picked up by Japanese villagers. Abused and beaten by the villagers, they were handed over to the local police. For the next five days, they traveled by various means to Mukaishima. Arriving on August 20, 1945, the men learned the war had ended the day after they were taken captive. Pilot Carl Holden recalled there were 106 Americans in the camp and 75 Brits when he and his men arrived.
In 1952, Colonel Artman, then a Major, and the only American officer in the camp, recalled there were 99 of the 100 American prisoners who arrived at the camp one year earlier still living when the war ended, and 78 Brits.
If you can provide any information as to who the additional seven Americans might have been, please contact us!
Of the 100 prisoners pictured, the following 67 are named with their POW numbers below. The handwritten list was cross-checked with the prisoner roster of the Noto Maru, with some additional information provided by Mr. Roger Mansell, Director, Center for Research, Allied POWs under the Japanese.
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