LIFE AS A FEPOW · HELLSHIPS, 1944

 

The Hofuku Maru

 

Eleven weeks in the holds of a broken-down freighter, then minutes to sink. Of 1,289 British and Dutch prisoners on board, 1,047 never came home.

 

 

 

Leaving Singapore

 

The Hofuku Maru was an elderly Japanese cargo ship of 5,857 tons, built at Kobe in 1918. On 4 July 1944 she left Singapore in convoy SHIMI-05, heading for Japan by way of Borneo. Crammed into her holds above a cargo of bauxite ore were 1,289 Allied prisoners of war — 1,076 British and 213 Dutch — most of whom had already spent more than two years in captivity.

 

Conditions below deck were like those on every hellship. The men were packed so tightly that many could not lie down. Food and water were scarce, there was almost no sanitation, and disease spread quickly in the tropical heat.

 

 

 

 

Two Months in Manila

 

On 8 July the convoy reached Miri, in Borneo, where the Hofuku Maru dropped out with engine trouble. After temporary repairs she sailed on alone to the Philippines, arriving in Manila on 19 July 1944.

 

She stayed there for two months while her engines were repaired — and the prisoners were kept on board the whole time. Trapped in the holds in the heat of Manila harbour, the men suffered terribly from hunger, thirst and disease.

 

 

 

 

The Attack of 21 September 1944

 

On 20 September 1944 the Hofuku Maru finally sailed from Manila for Japan in convoy MATA-27. The next morning, about 80 miles north of Corregidor off the coast of Zambales, the convoy was attacked by carrier aircraft of the American Task Force 38. Struck by torpedoes, the Hofuku Maru broke apart and sank within minutes. Every ship in the convoy was lost.

 

Of the 1,289 prisoners on board, 1,047 were killed, making the Hofuku Maru one of the worst losses of any hellship. Around 240 men survived. Some swam to the shore of Luzon, where they were rounded up again by the Japanese; others were picked up by Japanese escort ships and taken on to Takao in Taiwan.

 

 

 

 

Found at Last

 

For more than eighty years the resting place of the Hofuku Maru was unknown. In 2025, a digitised Japanese wartime document pointed researchers working with the Hellships Memorial Foundation to a new search area, and a team of divers later located the wreck off Zambales, Luzon, in about 50 metres of water. The discovery was announced in June 2026.

 

The ship lies broken into pieces on the seabed, and human remains were found among the wreckage. The site is treated as a protected war grave, and its exact location has been kept secret.

 

 

 

 

Remembering the Hofuku Maru

 

The men of the Hofuku Maru endured months in the holds of a crippled ship, only to die within sight of land. Most of those who were lost have no grave but the sea, and their sacrifice must never be forgotten.

 

Their story is one of many told on our Hellships page.