The Japanese Hell Ships and US POWs during WWII.

The other evening I saw a documentary on the "Hell Ships", and I was absolutely devastated.
Not to shift blame or try and fight any wars over, or even to compare the death rates of American POWs of the Japanese compared to those held by the Germans (quite interesting though, figures in the clips).
Although I sometimes wonder if Hollywood will give us a movie about it?
What does ATS think?
If not, I wonder why not?

Essentially "Hell Ships" were commercial ships or ocean-liners commandeered by the Japanese military during World War Two to transport Allied (mainly American) prisoners of war in their holds.

Often over a thousand men were crammed into a hold, and many were murdered by their comrades as the air ran out, and every breath became a desperate struggle, as more and more people were squashed on top of each other.

Typically there were no toilet facilities (not even a bucket), and the Japanese withheld water and even Red Cross food rations - seemingly both due to a racist contempt for their prisoners, and to keep them weak and docile. Temperatures in the holds were often boiling.

At first the Hell Ships carried prisoners to, or between Japanese labor camps across the Asian Pacific theater of war, but as the Japanese lost territory they increasingly aimed to take the prisoners to labor camps in Japan (often with Japanese civilians in the passenger cabins on deck).

Added to their unbearable torture, an additional horror of the prisoners in the holds then became friendly fire, since the ships weren't marked as "prison ships".

Surprisingly some US prisoners survived death marches, and being sunk on one Hell Ship only to be put on another.

Here's my salute to the triumph and tenacity of the human spirit.

If you think your life sucks due to happenstance, then take a look at this, and be grateful!

Have always loved ww2 documentary's. Very interested in this video, going to watch now. Thanks for posting as I've never heard of these ships, but it is no suprise the japs did this.

Was watching the first video and wondering if it be more humane to just sink them/blow then up. Well that answered my question, sucks all those men survived a 500lb bomb just to get capturered again, that really is sad. Thanks for sharing this I enjoy learning something new everyday.

I don't think they had safe rooms back then.... We are so weak in mind and body today...

a reply to: halfoldman

Not to shift blame or try and fight any wars over, or even to compare the death rates of American POWs of the Japanese compared to those held by the Germans (quite interesting though, figures in the clips).

All sides committed war crimes, it's a fallacy in thinking otherwise, what about comparing to the Japanese prisoners thrown into the Russian Siberian gulags, horrendous conditions there also.

And not to get political, but re-watching Rumsfeld/Cheney/Bush and McCain trying to explain the treatment of Iraqi and Afghan prisoners (the majority of which weren't even combatants or even had charges against them), through saying the Geneva convention has loopholes and is "open to interpretation" was absolutely disgusting.

It's the politicians who are the criminals

a reply to: Zcustosmorum

Here's my salute to the triumph and tenacity of the human spirit.

And I know for sure it's not the only example in human history!


But on the other hand, it is a pretty hidden one, even in the US.

And why is that?

a reply to: halfoldman
If you are interested in that topic, their camps on land were not heavenly places either. The movie "Bridge on the River Kwai" depicts the atmosphere.

The tune being whistled in that clip is supposed to carry the words
"Hitler
Has only got one ball..."

a reply to: DISRAELI

Been quite a while since that movie, and that was about mainly British prisoners - a bit of a critique of the British stiff upper lip.

Well, I'm thinking "Empire of the Sun" (Spielberg 1987).
But some critics said if a kid's main obsession is making paper planes and singing ditties with the enemy it's no longer a "war" movie.
Maybe rather a dogged coming of age tale.

There's been some other attempts depicting Japanese prison camps, from female choirs to fairly low-budget accuracy.

But why no "Hell Ship"?

a reply to: halfoldman

best true movie made about the Japanese prisoner of war camps.



and the man hinmself,

a reply to: halfoldman

It's a shame that I never got the opportunity to know my grandfather as he passed when I was 3. He was a Bataan Death March survivor, and was interred at PoW camp Fukuoka #17 - Omuta. Link to more info
You'll find his name on the roster of those held there. From what my father and other relations have told me, my grandfather didn't speak much about that part of his life. There's a book by George Weller entitled "First Into Nagasaki: The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post-Atomic Japan and Its Prisoners of War" that has a small quote from my grandfather in it as well. It's an eye-opening read, and every year around this time I do think of the things he may have gone through.

I've seen the telegrams that they were forced to sign and send back saying they were treated well, I've seen some of the pictures of him shortly after returning home, and have heard what few stories he was willing to share with his son. The coal mine that he was sent to for labor still stands if I'm not mistaken, and the same family owns it to this day. I've heard second hand that they were close enough to see the blast from the bomb, the officers herded them into the mine and they thought they were going to be executed. Instead they were abandoned until the owner of the mine came down a couple of days later to bring them out and feed them and wait for the allied forces to collect them.

My dad was stationed in the Philippines when I was a kid (around the same time my grandfather passed), and I have pictures of myself and him at some of the old sites that were still there. It's one of the things I would like to do at some point in my life, go back so I can remember it, go to where the camp was and see it. I don't know if it's for closure or curiosity, I just feel it's something that I need to do.

a reply to: Hypntick

I sometimes try to place myself in ww2 situations and wonder how i would react. Of course, it's almost impossible to imagine how someone like your grandfather must have felt before being rescued (or after for that matter). I can easily see myself never functioning properly after such trauma.

I also wish I could've spoken a few words with mine who passed the same year I was born. He ended up loosing a leg after landing on Anzio in Sicily. A mortar round killed everyone except him in their trench/hole. He used to chase my mother and siblings around with his wooden leg.

To the OP:
First time I have heard of those hell ships. Thanks for sharing.

a reply to: Skeletonized

From what I've been told he was one of the nicest people you'd meet, that could just by family, but from the pictures I've seen of him I imagine it's true.

I also know that after the war he couldn't stay in concrete block buildings for extended periods of time. I imagine something to do with the housing provided to the PoW's and some PTSD.

There's so much I'd love to ask him, then again, maybe he wouldn't have wanted me to ask.