Hell ship
Part of a series on |
Statism in Shōwa Japan |
---|
A hell ship is a ship with extremely inhumane living conditions or with a reputation for cruelty among the crew. It now generally refers to the ships used by the
Etymology
During the American Revolutionary War, Patriot prisoners of war sometimes referred to British prison ships they were held in using the terms "hell" and "hell ship". Captured Patriot military personnel who refused to swear allegiance to the Crown during the conflict were kept by the British in prison ships, many of which were aging and dilapidated warships. Conditions onboard these ships were frequently abysmal, and outbreaks of diseases such as dysentery were rife among prisoners. The most infamous prison ship was HMS Jersey, which was designed to hold a complement of 400 crewmen but held up to 1,000 prisoners of war during the conflict; when the war ended in 1783, it was abandoned and burnt in the New York Harbor.[1][2]
During
Conditions onboard these vessels were abysmal, with passengers being frequently denied access to adequate food, drink and bathroom facilities while being placed into cramped conditions. Terminal dehydration, hyperthermia and starvation along with summary executions and excessive beatings led to the death of some, though the greatest cause of fatalities for POWs aboard these ships were Allied attacks, which unintentionally killed thousands of passengers; since these ships also transported cargo for the Japanese war effort, they were marked for attack by the Allies. The United States Navy carried out most of these attacks with the help of Allied intelligence services and the Royal Navy's British Pacific Fleet.[4]
The term "hell ship" was also used by the British press to refer to ships used by Nazi Germany to transport Allied POWs, such as the oil tanker Altmark. The ship was transporting 300 British sailors picked up after being on merchant ships sunk by the Kriegsmarine cruiser Admiral Graf Spee when it was boarded by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Cossack, which rescued the sailors. When describing the rescue, which came to be known as the Altmark incident, British newspapers frequently described Altmark with epithets such as "Hitler's hell-ship" or the "Nazi hell-ship".[5][6]
Japanese hell ships
In May 1942, the Japanese began transferring its captured POWs by sea. Prisoners were often crammed into cargo holds with little air, ventilation, food, or water, for journeys that would last weeks. Many died due to asphyxia, starvation or dysentery. Some POWs became delirious and unresponsive in their environment of heat, humidity and lack of oxygen, food, and water. These transports carried a mixture of POWs and regular Japanese troops and cargo, and thus were not eligible to be marked as non-combatants. As a result, such vessels could be attacked by Allied submarines and aircraft, meaning they were at risk of being sunk before they even reached their destination. More than 20,000 Allied POWs died at sea when the transport ships carrying them were attacked by Allied submarines and aircraft.
List of ships sunk
Arisan Maru
On October 24, 1944, the Arisan Maru was transporting 1,781 U.S. and Allied military and civilian POWs when it was hit by a torpedo from a U.S. submarine (either USS Shark or USS Snook), at about 5:00 p.m.; it finally sank about 7:00 p.m. No POWs were killed by the torpedo strikes, and nearly all were able to escape from the ship's holds, but the Japanese did not attempt to rescue any of them from the sea. Only nine of the prisoners aboard survived the event. Five escaped and made their way to China in one of the ship's two life boats. They were reunited with U.S. forces and returned to the United States. The remaining four were later recaptured by Imperial Japanese naval vessels, with one of them dying shortly after they reached land.
Brazil Maru
Survivors of the
Buyo Maru
Enoura Maru
About 1,000 of the survivors of the
Hofuku Maru
The
Jun'yō Maru
The 5,065-ton
Kachidoki Maru
On 12 September 1944,
Lisbon Maru
Maros Maru
The 600-ton Maros Maru (The SS Maros was renamed Haruyoshi Maru by the Japanese) sailed from Ambon on 17 September 1944 routed along the south-coast of Celebes with about 500 British and Dutch POWs bound for Surabaya. On 21 September 1944 the ship arrived at Muna Island (south of Celebes) to embark 150 POWs. The ship required engine repairs upon arrival in Makassar. Here 159 POWs died in the holds in the 40 days required to complete repairs. They got a seaman's grave in the harbour of Makassar. Only 327 POWs survived when the ship reached Surabaya on 26 November 1944. They were transported by train to the Kampong Makassar camp in Batavia (Meester Cornelis), and arrived on 28 November 1944.
Montevideo Maru
Oryoku Maru
Many men lost their minds and crawled about in the absolute darkness armed with knives, attempting to kill people in order to drink their blood or armed with canteens filled with urine and swinging them in the dark. The hold was so crowded and everyone so interlocked with one another that the only movement possible was over the heads and bodies of others.[23]
Rakuyo Maru
Shinyo Maru
Suez Maru
Media appearances
In 2012 film producer Jan Thompson created a film documentary on the hell ships, Death March, and POW camps titled Never the Same: The Prisoner-of-War Experience. The film reproduced scenes of the camps and ships, showed drawings and writings of the prisoners, and featured Loretta Swit as the narrator.[27][28] The Midnight Oil song In the Valley mentions the sinking of Montevideo Maru, where the narrator's grandfather drowned, "the Rising Sun sent him floating to his rest".
See also
- List of Japanese hell ships
- Slave ship
- Prison ship
- SS Arandora Star
- RMS Nova Scotia — a British liner sunk in November 1942 while carrying interned Italian civilians and prisoners of war
- SS Shuntien (1934)
- Laconia incident
References
- ^ "The HMS Jersey: Gruesome Revolutionary Prison Ship". History Things.
- ^ P. Watson, Robert (August 15, 2017). The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn: An Untold Story of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.
- ^ https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1944/oryoku-maru.html
- ^ https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1944/oryoku-maru.html
- ^ Jarvis, Adrian (January 2001). "A Gentleman's War? The Diary of Captain Albert Horace Brown of SS Huntsman" (PDF). The Northern Mariner. XI (1): 54.
- ISBN 9780197263242.
- ^ a b Hackett, Bob (2013). "BRAZIL MARU". Imperial Japanese Navy Page. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
- ^ POW Diary of Capt. P.R.Cornwall, National Archive Mil. Hist. Div. File 99-2-30 Book 6, and his letters
- ^ a b Hackett, Bob (2013). "IJA Transport BUYO MARU". Imperial Japanese Navy Page. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
- ^ Nagasawa, Fumio (1998). "第一吉田丸型 YOSHIDA MARU No.1 Class 25隻 (1918-1919)". Nostalgic Japanese Steamships (in Japanese).
- ^ Holwitt, Joel I. "Execute Against Japan", Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 2005, p.288; DeRose, James F. Unrestricted Warfare (John Wiley & Sons, 2000), pp.287-288.
- ^ Bridgland, Tony. Waves of Hate (Pen and Sword Books, 2002), pp.115-129.
- ^ Holwitt, p.287.
- ^ a b O'Kane. Wahoo: The Patrols of America's Most famous WWII Submarine. pp. 153–154.
- ^ Convention for the Adaptation to Maritime War of the Principles of the Geneva Convention, Article 16
- ^ Holwitt, p.288; DeRose, James F. Unrestricted Warfare (John Wiley & Sons, 2000), pp.287-288.
- ^ Holwitt, p.289
- ^ Beekhuis, Henk (18 June 2013). "Junyo Maru". Japanse krijgsgevangenkampen. Henk Beekhuis. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
- ^ "Junyo Maru". Roll of Honour. Retrieved 30 September 2008.
- ^ a b c Prisoners Of War Of Japanese 1942-45: Surviving the sinking of the Rakuyo Maru Linked 2015-02-20
- ^ a b "Sealion". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
- ^ 鴨緑丸 Archived 2012-07-13 at archive.today. Museum of Japanese Merchant Ships.
- The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936–1945. Random House. p. 601.
- ^ 船舶輸送艦における遭難部隊資料(陸軍)- IJA report about military transport ship losses in WW2
- ^ Mazza, Eugene A. "USS Paddle: Sinking American POWs". Memories of War: Personal Histories. The Pacific War: The US Navy. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
- OCLC 41977179. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
- ^ Brotman, Barbara (April 1, 2013). "From Death March to Hell Ships". Chicago Tribune. pp. Lifestyles.
- ^ Among others, additional narration was provided by Ed Asner, Alec Baldwin, Kathleen Turner, and Robert Wagner. "Never the Same: The Prisoner of War Experience". Gene Siskal Film Center. School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Archived from the original on 2014-03-28.
- U.S. National Archives, Mil. Hist. Div. POW diary of Capt. Paul R.Cornwall, 41–45, File 999-2-30 Bk.6 and unpublished letters.
- Jones, Allan (2002). The Suez Maru atrocity: Justice denied!: the story of Lewis Jones, a victim of a WW2 Japanese hell-ship. Hornchurch: privately published. ISBN 0954272501.
Further reading
- "The search for answers about "hell ships" of World War II" (Video 8:16). CBS News. 29 May 2021.
External links
- "American POWs on Japanese Ships Take a Voyage into Hell". Prologue Magazine. Retrieved December 20, 2005.
- "Hell Ships". Britain at War. Retrieved January 16, 2008.
- Rolls of those who died on Hell Ships
- Documentary Hell Ships to Flores and the Moluccas. 2012. Kees Maaswinkel, at youtube.com
- Documentary Hell ships to Sumatra. 2012. Kees Maaswinkel, at youtube.com