Arrived at Moji in Japan where POWs were sent onto Taisho sub-camp, one of a group of camps around Osaka and Kobe. About 500 … Some camps provided overcoats for the winter and some did not. Camp, Hosokura, Hakodate Group, Japan, JC /207 Nishin, Nishiro, Tokyo Group,Kawasaki, Japan, JC /209 Shinagawa Camp, Tokyo Group, Japan, JC /221 Yawata No. The railway had been surveyed in the 1900s by the British but the route was considered too difficult to construct due to the terrain of deep valleys and high mountains. In General, no direct access to the POWs was provided to the International Red Cross. However, on January 9, the Enoura Maru was bombed and disabled while in harbour, killing about 350 men. You are browsing in: Archive List > British Army. After surrendering to Imperial Japanese Army forces in a revenge act for the sinking of a Japanese minesweeper they rounded up 300 Dutch and Australian POWs at random and executed them at Laha airfield in the Dutch East Indies (Now Timor). to be used by the Japanese Armed Forces in the occupied areas. In normal times the prison would house 800 prisoners but at one point during the war, it had ten times that. The POWs declined offers to blindfold. The Japanese treatment of prisoners of war in World War … A rescue attempt (as per Cabanatuan) using US Rangers and Filipino guerrillas rescued 2,147 Allied servicemen and Civilians from this camp. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google On September 7, 1944, the hell ship SS Shinyo Maru was attacked by the submarine USS Paddle. Bare bulbs were used for the lights, and heat came from firepots or stoves made from shipping drums. Around 27,000 Filipinos and 2,200 Americans died at Camp O'Donnell. WW2 - British Army Soldiers Rescue Mission in Normandy - Prisoners of War - Call of Duty 2. The camps were mainly set up in mines and the industrial areas such as Keihin (Tokyo and Yokohama), and Hanshin (Osaka and Kobe). Around 1500 servicemen & women were captured in South Sumatra and many were taken onto Singapore. The first wooden bridge over the Khwae Yai was finished in February 1943, followed by a concrete and steel bridge in June 1943. Left Singapore carrying 525 POWs 23/12/44 and arrived Moji Japan 13/01/45. The Japanese 'encouraged' these men to join the Indian National Liberation Army, but met with little success. On September 18th, 1944, when sailing from Tangjung Priok, Java to Padang, Sumatra, Junyo Maru was torpedoed west off Sumatra, Mukomuko by the British submarine HMS Tradewind. To prevent the rescue of prisoners of war by the advancing allies, on 14 December 1944, Japanese guards herded the remaining 150 POWs at Puerto Princesa, Palawan Island, into three covered trenches used as air-raid shelters which were then set on fire. Canadian Inventor (Mati Mati Maru/ Sekiho Maru). Please be aware that due to the way we collate, and cross reference our databases, Exact departure dates are confusing since some sources state 3rd June and some 5th June 1944. Japanese prisoner of war index cards can be found in WO 345. Suzuya Maru (AKA Otaro Maru/Op ten Noort), 20/10/42 1600 Dutch POWs transported to Moulmein from Java, Tamahoko Maru (AKA Yone Maru/Tamahoko Maru). Mati –Mati =’wait, wait’ a nickname for this hell ship that zigzagged across the Pacific carrying POWs so much it was always a delayed journey. Three other Japanese officers were executed for mistreatment of POWs and/or civilians on other occasions, during 1942–45 and General Ito was sentenced to death that same year for war crimes committed in other parts of the Pacific. Privacy Policy and Akikase was later torpedoed and sunk on 03/11/44 by the US submarine USS Pintado. (We have a copy of ‘The Prisoner of War’ magazine from February 1943 which notes a visit to Woosung camp Near Shanghai, China and mentions 3 of the main camps in Japan proper as having had visits). The Japanese military police (Kempeitai) used Outram Road Gaol in Singapore as a place of punishment for all those who broke their rules – prisoners of war, internees and local people. As Commander of all POW and civilian internee camps, Suga was responsible for the many atrocities that took place in these camps, including the Sandakan Death Marches. For Japanese from various parts of the Commonwealth, there were to be exchanged Commonwealth civilians who wished to leave China, Japan, Thai-land, and Indo-China. Two torpedoes hit the hull of the ship which sank, killing several hundred American, Dutch and Filipino servicemen. After wandering for three days in the swamp, they contacted a band of Filipino guerrillas. The average number of cards which the Japanese allowed being sent out was from four to five for the whole period of captivity, and only some of these reached their destinations. Both ships reached Takao (Kaohsiung) harbour in Taiwan on New Year's Day, where the smaller group of prisoners was transferred from Brazil Maru to Enoura Maru, and 37 British and Dutch were taken ashore. Other officers were later tried, found guilty and executed. Bilibid new Prison opened in 1941 on the site of the former ‘old’ prison and was converted into a POW camp after the Japanese occupation. Used to ferry some of the party of 2200 British, Dutch & Australian POWs including RAF from Singapore to Moji (Japan) leaving 5th June 1944. This was the Kempeitai (Japanese military/secret police) centre for hard labour, torture and execution. One New Zealander who worked on the Burma–Thailand railway received 126 letters, another only three. The survivors were put aboard the Brazil Maru which arrived in Moji, Japan, on January 29, 1945. Register with your email address now, we can then send you an alert as soon as we add a record close matching the one you were searching for. Only 550 of the 900+ who sailed from Taiwan were still alive; 150 more men died in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea in the coming months, leaving only 403 survivors of the original 1620 to be liberated from camps in Kyushu, Korea, Manchuria, and Taiwan in August and September 1945. Sailed from Singapore to Japan (Moji) on 28/11/42 with 557 POWs, some reports show the ship terminating at Nagasaki however on this voyage. The Hiroshima Main Camp absorbed Zentsuji POW Camp making a total of seven main camps. These listings include the following specifics for each person: Name, first names, rank, serial number, date of capture, date of liberation, branch of the services & camp* -we will continue to add more information as we source it. There were many deaths, and the men were buried just outside the camp near the vegetable gardens of the Argyle Street Camp immediately on the other side of Argyle Street. 14) by an air raid and seven were killed by the A-Bomb in Nagasaki Mitsubishi Ship-Building Branch Camp (Fukuoka No. Sailed from Singapore on 04/7/44 to Moji, Japan via Manila (Phillipines) arriving on 13/8/44 with 609 POWs. Only 11 men escaped via holes in the perimeter fence, they later testified in war crimes tribunals. Inatsuki (Yamano) Branch Camp (Fukuoka 8-B), Osarisawa (Hanawa) Branch Camp (Sendai 6-B), Hiraoka (Mitsushima) Branch Camp (Tokyo 12-B), Kumamoto Branch Camp and Fukuoka Branch Camp (Fukuoka 1-B), Kawasaki Ogimachi Branch Camp (Tokyo 2-B) (aka ‘The Mitsui Madhouse’), Nagasaki Mitsubishi Dockyard Branch Camp (Fukuoka 14-B), Fushiki Hokkai Electro-Chemical Branch Camp (Nagoya 6-D), Toyama Nippon Soda Branch Camp (Nagoya 7-D), Toyama Tateyama Heavy Industry Branch Camp (Nagoya 8-D), Toyama Nippon Express Branch Camp (Nagoya 9-D), Fushiki Sea and Land Transportation Branch Camp (Nagoya 10-D), Toyama Nippon Soda Iwase Ironworks Branch Camp (Nagoya 11-D), Niigata Sea and Land Transportation Branch Camp (Tokyo 5-B), Niihama Isoura Branch Camp (Hiroshima 2-B), Nishi Ashibetsu Branch Camp (Hakodate 4-B), Yakumo Detached Camp (Hakodate 1-Detached), Yamashita Camp – see Yokohama Ship Loading Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 19-D), Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Yokohama Ship-building Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 1-D), Nippon Steel Tube Tsurumi Ship-building Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 3-D), Osaka Ship-building Yokohama Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 10-D), Nippon Steel Tube Asano Ship-building Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 13-D), Yokohama Proof-brick Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 18-D), Yokohama Ship Loading Dispatched Camp (Tokyo 19-D), Zentsuji Headquarters Camp & Zentsuji Subcamp 3 (Hiroshima area POW Camp).