Hellships:

An aerial photo of the sinking Oryoku Maru near Olangapo. Prisoners
create white splashes while they swim towards the shore. There are
Japanese soldiers with machine guns on the beach who will shoot
any man who tries to swim away. It is December 15, 1944.

The Oryoku Maru

In the final months of 1944, increasing allied air and submarine strikes against the Japanese had left a severe shortage of available ships. As the Japanese lost island after island to the American forces in the Pacific, they would close their POW camps ahead of the advance and send the prisoners to mainland Japan rather than allow them to be liberated.

The prisoners were usually sent aboard freighters and in the holds of cruise ships, men packed tight to move out as many as they could. This led to inhumane conditions and high mortality aboard these vessels, these “hellships”. The ships were not marked to indicate their human cargo, so allied planes and subs would attack and sink them with the POWs inside.

The Japanese were fanatically averse to failure, and frequently the commanding officers of the islands lost would commit suicide, often after every Japanese defender had been killed or had killed himself.

The Japanese Army would be responsible for prisoners on land, but the Navy would assume responsibility for them once they were aboard ship.

The Philippines were on the verge of being retaken and the Japanese high command ordered the evacuation of Bilibid prison in Manila. The men still held there who were well enough to walk were taken to the Pier and loaded aboard a new passenger ship called the Oryoku Maru.

Also aboard were many Japanese civilians of the occupation, called back home.

On December 13, 1944, 1,619 men left Bilibid and were packed into three cargo holds on board the Oryoku Maru. The holds were built with wooden platforms for ship’s luggage, and these compartments were crammed full of packed men. In the evening, the ship departed Pier 7, steaming around the Bataan penisula to join a convoy bound for Formosa. During the first hot night aboard, many POWs died of suffocation and heat prostration; no water or food had been provided since before they departed from Bilibid and the men, crazed with thirst in the darkness of the hold would struggle, some to steal water from their neighbor’s canteens, others to protect their water. There were some instances of vampirism, with men slicing those nearby and trying to drink their blood.

On the morning of December 14, the Oryoku was crippled by a series of American air attacks. In the initial attack a bomb exploded and tore a gaping hole in her side. The rudder was disabled in another of the attacks, and the ship ran aground off Olongapo Point after only 21 hours en route. The ship was stuck approximately 300 meters off shore, and there were hundreds of dead and seriously wounded Japanese civilians and servicemen littering her decks. The POWs were kept confined and spent another night among their dead and wounded in the hold.

On December 15, another attack arrived, some American planes to finish off the crippled ocean liner. At the demand of the guards, some prisoners were brought up on deck in the hope that the pilots would see them and would break off their attack. This ruse worked, and the Japanese immediately began offloaded the civilians and wounded soldiers and sailors aboard the lifeboats. The POWs were told they would have to swim to shore, and before they got in the water, they were advised not to try to escape. There were guards manning machine gun positions on the shore and they were instructed to shoot any POWs who drifted out of an arbitrary safe zone. The POWs were also told to remove their clothing and shoes, which most of them did but regretted later.

Many of the prisoners drowned between the doomed ship and the shore, and as soon as the survivors crawled up onto the beach, they were fired upon by the guards. The prisoners kept themselves hunkered down behind a shallow sand berm until they were eventually rounded up and escorted by the guards to a small tennis court nearby.

There were around 1,300 remaining POWs locked in the tennis court, and there was barely room to move in the small crowded space. Food and water had still not been provided. That afternoon, the American planes returned to finish off the Oryoku, and a concurrent attack on a nearby antiaircraft position dropped hot shell casings among the crowded prisoners. The bright tropical sun had left those who stripped off their clothing suffering from massive sunburn and heatstroke.

The next morning, December 16, each prisoner was given two tablespoons of raw rice and two more of water per man. There was 1,300 POWs held in a tennis court approx. 1,000 sq. ft. in size.

On December 17, some meager clothing was issued and given to the most seriously sunburned of them. The imperial army and navy were arguing over who was responsible for the POWs, and food and water was still not provided in more than minimal quantities; this because each insisted the other had jurisdiction. Another in a series of long hot days went by, followed by another cold and windy night.

It was not until December 20 that the army and navy sorted things out and some trucks arrived at the tennis court to take half of the prisoners. The other half were to be removed the next day. They were taken back across the peninsula through the Zambales mountains to San Fernando, and they were then held in a provincial jail compound until the rest of the prisoners had arrived. The ration of rice was increased to two cooked meals a day, and the jail had an ample water supply.

On December 21 the remaining POWs were moved out of the tennis court, except for fifteen of the most ill prisoners who were instead taken elsewhere by the Japanese. Ostensibly they were to be taken to the hospital, but it was later discovered that the fifteen were taken and executed. The surviving prisoners spent their next three days in the jail.

On December 24, the POWs were marched to a nearby train yard and loaded into box cars connected to a train bound for San Fernando, La Union on the Lingayen gulf. Wounded POWs were placed on top of the cars to ward off American attacks, and the train did not arrive until midnight. The POWs unloaded from the train and were moved into a school house to spend two more nights.

It was not until December 27 that the POWs left the schoolhouse and marched to a sandy beach near the docks. They spent the night burrowed into the sand to try and keep warm.

It was December 28 when the POWs were finally marched over to the port and were made to climb on to a barge tied at the jetty and then jump across the gap between another barge tied alongside the Enoura Maru. Some men fell into the space between the barges and drowned, but there were 1,069 men that were loaded aboard her. Another ship, the Brazil Maru, was also being loaded, but her captain was nervous and in a hurry and would only let 236 of the prisoners board. The Enoura had just offloaded horses, and her holds were full of bits of straw and dung.

 The two ships departed with a convoy that went slowly, using a random zig-zag course to hopefully avoid subs. The next day, December 29, the convoy encountered a storm that slowed the convoy even further. That evening, subs attacked the convoy, sinking several ships, and on December 30, another sub attack all but crippled the Brazil Maru. The convoy eventually limped into the port at Takao, Formosa and repairs to her were attempted. After a day or two the damage was judged too severe and on January 6, 1945, the men from the Brazil Maru were brought on board the Enoura Maru. There were 1,262 men remaining.

On January 9, an American dive bomber hit the Enoura Maru where she was anchored in Takao harbor, killing 332 prisoners.

It was not until  January 12, however, that the POWs killed in the air strike were removed from her holds and the 930 remaining POWs were transferred back to the Brazil Maru. The Japanese officers assigned to evacuate the prisoners were going to succeed at all costs. Their mission was to bring the POWs back to Japan, and they would not fail.

The Brazil Maru left Takao on January 13, and as the ship steamed north, the weather became colder, but there were no further attacks. Finally, on January 30, the Brazil Maru arrived at Moji in Japan and the remaining prisoners were sent to factories all over the island to work—slaves for the emperor.

The voyage lasted 48 days and left 689 men dead.

Source:
Lawton, Marion. "Some Survived." New York: Warner Books, 1984.