A set of 3 ships carried around 2200 POWs to Moji however. It is interesting to note the suffix Maru this was a common addition to ships name meaning beloved and was intended to protect the ships from exterior harm. Cofepow.org.uk is now making images of some original documentation and prisoner release/questionnaire forms. The list contains over 1700 names and is particularly interesting as a record of the decimation, by disease or untreated wounds, of prisoners working on the Burma-Thailand railway. A famed legal drug entrepreneur and multi millionaire from New Zealand recently died within a Thai Prison while being held for immigration offences. <>/ExtGState<>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 595.56 842.04] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> Thailand has the largest prison population in Southeast Asia, with about 282,000 inmates in its 143 jails, mostly on drug convictions. At least, prison yoga is available to free the mind and ease the pain. An industrial area halfway between Medan and Pulo Berayan. By the time the war was over, a total of more than 30,000 POWs had died from starvation, diseases, and mistreatment both within and outside of the Japanese Mainland. Used to ferry some of the party of 2200 British, Dutch & Australian POWs including RAF from Singapore to Moji (Japan) leaving 5th June 1944. The ship was later part of a convoy sailing on 3rd June 1944 from Batavia, Java towards Japan with 772 Australian, British and American prisoners of war on board. As prisoners tried to escape the flames they were then bayoneted or shot down. POWs reported various atrocities of these types in their testimony before the War Tribunals after the war. The prisoners resorted to digging trenches in the parade grounds as latrines. Carried 1100 POWs from Singapore to Moji (Japan) on 30/10/42. 37,583 prisoners from the United Kingdom, Commonwealth and Dominions, 28,500 from Netherlands and 14,473 from the United States were released after the surrender of Japan. The kempeitai were the military police of the Japanese Imperial army during World War II. Hokusen Maru (AKA Haro Maru, Haru Mary, Benjo Maru, Horror Maru). It was commonplace for a senior Japanese officer to strike his subordinate officers who then passed the same treatment down the chain of command to their non commissioned staff and down to the lowliest Japanese soldier who then invariably took this out on prisoners under his control. Risser) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese army cargo ship Taga Maru (2220 GRT) off Seishin, northwestern Korea in position 4142'N, 12934'E. Several times a month, meat or fish was provided, but as the food situation in Japan worsened, the meat disappeared. Klong Prem Prison is in Ngamwongwang Road in north Bangkok, and includes a medium term center, Bangkok Remand Prison, and the juvenile remand center. At the time, he expressed his deep concern for his son at the prison because of the poor food provided to prisoners and the prevalence of Aids. The POWs were already in weak condition before embarkation, and they had to endure terrible conditions while aboard the transport ships (hell ships'). Once the Japanese took over Singapore, Blakang Mati was used as a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Occupation. As early as February 1942 proposals had been made to the Japanese by the British Commonwealth and United States governments for an exchange of civilian officials, together with a certain number of non-officials. Along with the rest of the 24th Group, he ended up at Bataan, where he flew the last combat mission on April 8, 1942. She said it was now a waiting game for them all. Repair work continued and both bridges were operational again by the end of May. Sean Flanagan from Cumbria was sent to Pattaya Remand Prison Thai authorities took seven months to investigate death Initially claimed he fell off wall before admitting he was assaulted twice Man. His brother says he is innocent and claims he was tortured in detention. The new railway route commenced building on 22nd June 1942 and completed on 17th October 1943, the most famous part near the townKanchanaburi spanningthe river Mekhong is Bridge 277 the famous Bridge on the River Kwai. She was deliberately scuttled by the Dutch to prevent her from falling into enemy hands but the Japanese refloated and salvaged her in 1942. An armed merchant cruiser, converted from a civilian merchant ship in 1941. The registers give minimal information about each prisoner which may include registration card number and dispersal information. In the early hours of the 16th September, she hit a mine north of Labuan, listed quickly to port and sank. The case of the Oryoku Maru collectively covers the seven-week voyages and fate of Allied POWs held in the Philippines, who survived the sinking of that ship in Subic Bay in December 1944, and the bombing of a second ship the Enoura Maru, in the harbour of Takao, January 1945, and the Brazil Maru which transported the last surviving Allied POWs to Moji, Japan. Despite the heat, there were two taps to collect water from, and each prisoner was limited to one quart of water (approximately 0.95 litres) for consumption and washing each day. In 1945, Lieutenant General Shimpei Fukuei (also spelt as Fukuye) was the first to be tried for war crimes. Most main camps had sub-camps near workplaces: all POWs under Japanese control were required to work irrespective of rank- most large camps had as many as 12 subcamps. A type of military secret police, also largely responsible for counter-espionage activities. The Asaka carried 709 British & Australian POWs from Singapore to Japan but was sunk by USN aircraft off Taiwan on 13/8/44, 690 survived. Kachidoki Maru (AKA Kakko maru/President Harrison). Only 11 men escaped via holes in the perimeter fence, they later testified in war crimes tribunals. The information they provided gave urgency to the question of further exchange agreements, but in spite of unceasing negotiation, this draft was destined to be the last to be repatriated from Japanese custody until the liberation of the Philippines in February 1945. The lags abroad include drug mules Michaella Connolly and Melissa Reid holed up in Peru after being convicted of attempting to smuggle cocaine worth 1.5million from the South American country to Spain in August 2013. Note: there may be duplicated entries for some camp descriptions as camp names and sub names are often confusing: i.e. In many cases, with UK prisoners in Thailand with very severe sentences, the quickest route to release, even when transferred back the the United Kingdom has still been the issuance of a Royal pardon from the Thai King. The camp commandants often refused to reply to questions put to them. I wrote back to them many times. "On some occasions there were 24 of us in a cell of 26 sq metres and on a couple of occasions the guy beside me died," he said. Keijo, and to a lesser extent Jinsen and Mukden, were manipulated by the Japanese as "show" camps, open to the IRCC, to demonstrate to the Allied powers Japanese chivalry towards prisoners. On December 8, the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor (on the other side of the International Date Line), he flew from Nichols Field to engage in aerial combat against the Japanese in his Curtis P-40E fighter aeroplane. The basic menu was a bowl of rice, a cup of miso soup, and some pickles. It then carried 20 prisoners from Wake Island to Yokohama, Japan beginning November 1st, 1942 and later carried 71 prisoners from Singapore to Moki, Japan beginning September 21st, 1943. Getting enough food was a daily challenge. <> The United States has bilateral treaties with Bolivia, Canada, France, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Thailand, and Turkey, and is a party to two multilateral conventions, the Council of Europe (COE) Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, and the Inter-American Convention on Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad.. (Applications for prisoners seeking transfer to/from Canada, France, Panama, and . 13 0 obj Intestinal diseases soon developed. The survivors of the sinking were held for several days in an open tennis court at Olongapo Naval Base. As in Noguchis welcoming speech and subsequent addresses, it would also appear that there was a concerted effort to convince prisoners of the legitimacy of Japanese war aims and to canvass prisoner opinion about the Japanese people and the outcome of the war. When searching for a camp name you already know please bear in mind the names of the camps and their locations are very often mixed up within official and non-official records, therefore try to get as many names for the same place as you can or tie it down to the main camp and the type of work to find the subcamp. This was theKempeitai (Japanese military/secret police) centre for hard labour, torture and execution. Sunk by US submarine USS Whale (SS-329) on 17/2/43 on a voyage from Saipan to Truk with 900 POWs aboard. It is the Thai authorities who must ultimately agree the terms as the prison sentences were imposed by Thai courts under Thai law. He said his son had witnessed two stabbings and an attempted rape up to that point while imprisoned there. (Other reports state 548 POWs and no survivors. 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. endobj The family of Lance Whitmore are hoping that the young man will soon be transferred to the United Kingdom under the International Prisoner Transfer program enacted in 1984 by Thai authorities. In 2016, one of Lances legal team, Jeffrey Stevens,suggested that it may be possible to get the residual prison term down to 10 years by working with the UK Foreign Office. 8 0 obj In some camps, they had bread once a day. His conviction is currently under review in Thailand, and we are hopeful it will be overturned. Hundreds of Japanese troops were killed in the 30-minute coordinated attack; the Americans suffered minimal casualties. Emaciated Australian and Dutch prisoners of war held by the Japanese at Tarsau in Thailand Credit: News Dog Media Korean sex slaves are rescued after being forced to act as 'comfort women' for . There were 2 camps at Inrin, one was a temporary camp. The room was big, but not big enough for the 70 people it held. In addition to the number of POWs who reached Japanese camps, approximately 11,000 POWs tragically lost their lives when allied air and submarine forces attacked the ships transporting the POWs to Japan. 11-THB-123456 SMITH JOE - THAILAND or CON-1234 SMITH JOE . Our database contains only those rosters we have managed to source so far -If you know of other roster lists please let us know if you know where these may be located and we will add them if at all possible. Escapes among Caucasian prisoners were almost impossible because of the difficulty of men of Caucasian descent hiding in Asiatic societies, nearly all of those who attempted to escape were executed in front of their fellow POWs upon recapture, in some camps a further 10 POWs were also executed as a reprisal for the escape attempt. While we all associate Thailand with crazy parties, Thai massages, pristine beaches, and lush forests, the truth is that the country has strict moral codes and regulations. Which are all released under the terms of Creativecommons.org/licenses/by-s/3.0/. "One minute the person would be in the cell with you and the next they would be gone, although they have changed now to lethal injections. These horrific incidents following the fall of Ambon became the subject of one of the largest ever war crimes trials: 93 Japanese personnel were tried by an Australian military tribunal at Ambon. It was always rice, a liquid of some sort and some inedible meat. Grashio and his squadron commander, Lieutenant Ed Dyess, eight other Americans, and two Filipinos escaped from a work camp in Davao Region, the Philippinesinto the jungle on Sunday, April 4, 1943. We assist British citizens during their incarceration, and we also help family and friends affected by a relative or loved one's imprisonment. Camp, Hosokura, Hakodate Group, Japan, JC /207 Nishin, Nishiro, Tokyo Group,Kawasaki, Japan, JC /209 Shinagawa Camp, Tokyo Group, Japan, JC /221 Yawata No. I was thousands of miles away from home, and it really felt like it. News of those held in the Dutch East Indies seems to have been withheld the longest. Almost 900 of the villains crammed into foreign hell holes are drug dealers, with 154 child sex beasts and 102 caged for immigration offences. A second raid by the R.A.F. They began preparing assembly areas for the POWs as soon as the Japanese surrender documents were signed on September 1, 1945. To prevent the further loss of lives, Colonel E. B. Holmes ordered the POWs to sign the documents of non-escape. Left Manila the Philippine capital on 23/7/43 taking 501 US prisoners to Japan and was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Picuda (SS-382) in the Taiwan straits. Site of the infamous Palawan massacre where Japanese troops with Kempeitai (Military police) officers murdered 139 US POWs. Forces and returned to the United States. And 13 are on death row in nine different countries for murder, terrorism, drugs offences and blasphemy, Freedom of Information figures from the Foreign Commonwealth Office show. In 1917 she was sold to the Norfolk & North American Steamship Company (part of Furness Withy), London, and renamed Hartland Point. The two bridges were successfully bombed on 13 February 1945 by the Royal Air Force. 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). Burma Railway, also called Burma-Siam Railway, railway built during World War II connecting Bangkok and Moulmein (now Mawlamyine), Burma (Myanmar). Best known prisons (mostly from 19th century or older, mainly still in function except the Katajanokka Prison and Kakola): For a longer list of prisons in Germany see Liste der Justizvollzugsanstalten in Deutschland (in German), There are 45 Prisons in Ghana which are managed by the Ghana Prisons Service. Drinking water is also scarce. Brazil arrived at Moji, Japan with approximately 425 of 1,619 POWs that began the trip on Oryoku Maru on December 13, 1944. Violence by the guards was often reported, and it was common to receive a Binta (strong slap on the face) or various kinds of beatings. The big difference between the Branch Camp and Dispatched Camp is as follows: In a Branch Camp the Japanese Army supplied all the housing, food, and clothing for the POWs, In a Dispatched/detached camp food, housing, and clothing were provided by the companies and the IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) only provided the POWs and military staff. For instance, a Brit was charged for defending himself after he had been attacked by a Thai gang. This ship was used for several POW voyages including the delivery of Fepows to Fukuoka camp via the port of Moji in 1942/3. The following sites are all very highly recommended for further specific research. On September 7, 1944, the hell ship SS Shinyo Maru was attacked by the submarine USS Paddle. Figures show that 17 are in jail on murder charges and 10 for drugs . Halfway between the capital (Tokyo) and Yokohama this artificial island in the bay had barracks surrounded by a bamboo fence. His return home was welcomed by Fair Trials Abroad which campaigned for his release. There is some evidence that POWs here received the most humane treatment from their Japanese captors and were given a significant amount of privileges not found elsewhere. It may be that as a consequence, conditions in the Korean camps, and especially at Keijo, were significantly better than in most other Japanese controlled camps. The captain of the ship, Shin Kajiyama, was acquitted, "as he had no chance to prevent any atrocities". D- Thailand 5000 powsleft Changi for Bampong in four groups between 14 and 18 March 1943. At the Konan camp, some of the work was physically harder, such as stoking carbide furnaces. Situated in Kowloon district, this camp was the largest in Hong Kong and the main place where both professional soldiers and the Hong Kong volunteer defence corps were imprisoned during the Japanese occupation. 824 (AKA Teiryu maru, Kakakusen, Northwestern Miller, Augsberg), President Harrison (AKA Kachidoki/Kakko maru). The leading independent voice for aviation news and insight. There is no accurate total number for the number of deaths on this march although estimates range from 5,000-10,000 Filipinos and 650 US troops. The ship contained many injured service personnel and 64 Australian nurses of the 2/13th Australian General Hospital. Debbie, his mother, herself alluded to this on Facebook recently when she said that although she was very happy that the process was now underway, it usually took a long time. It's not only the poor living conditions that endanger tourists imprisoned in Thailand, though. Russell said that conditions at Klong Prem were very harsh and had been tightened up. About the book. RELATED: Creepiest Abandoned Prisons You Can Actually Visit. This is from a report courtesy of the National Library Board in Singapore 2006: The four men were made to line up, 3 paces apart, with their backs facing the sea. Toward the end of the war, the IJA moved many of the camps in the industrial areas inland or to areas closer to the Sea of Japan because of air raids by the U.S. Air Force and in anticipation of the invasion of Japan. He has done wrong, but there is a reason he got mixed up in all that, everything that was going on, she said. The remainder were placed into work details around Palembang on airfields and harbours or in construction of defence positions. Of these types in their testimony before the war was big, but not big for! Bay had barracks surrounded by a bamboo fence agree the terms as the food situation in Japan worsened the... 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