WFI Research Group

The term "Hellship" refers to Japanese transport ships used to move Allied POWs between the Philippines, Formosa, Korea, Manchuria and Japan. The inhuman conditions aboard the ships often led to large numbers of illness and death among the unfortunate POWs. Additionally, the Japanese failed to properly mark the vessels as POW transports leaving them exposed to attack by enemy submarines. In total there were approximately 80 ships used for this purpose. This page is only concerned with one of them, the Enoura Maru.

On the morning of 9 January 1945, the Enoura Maru was moored alongside a tanker in Takao Harbor, Formosa. (Photo) The ship was filled with POWs that had been loaded from two other Hellships, the Brazil Maru and the Oryoku Maru. Aircraft from the USS Hornet arrived on the scene and as tankers were a high priority target that ship came under attack. One bomb fell short of the tanker stiking the Enoura Maru in the forward hold killing hundreds of POWs. Surviving POWs were forced to place the dead in a large open pit where the Japanese attempted to cremate the bodies. Following the war the Army referred to this event as Case #436. Read the official report which begins on page 14 here.

After the war the remains were recovered and moved to Hawaii. Eventually making their way to the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu where they remain as Unknowns. (Photos below). A Group Burial would close over 400 MIA files and bring closure to the families.

This is a listing of the missing Americans involved;

Special thanks to Tracy Peters for the Punchbowl photos. The photo of the moored ships is from the National Archives and was taken from the USS Hornet aircraft.