| Book Review.
. . by Michael Hurst
DEATH ON THE HELLSHIPS
Historian Gregory Michno has recently completed what I feel
is the best book ever produced on the story of the infamous
Japanese “hellships” of World War II.
The terrible treatment of Japanese prisoners of war has been
much written about, but with this book readers will learn
of another whole saga of the Allied POWs’ experiences
at sea. It is such a disturbing story that it makes the Bataan
Death March pale by comparison.
Greg has obtained accounts from American, British, Australian
and Dutch POWs, as well as Japanese wartime convoy histories
and shipping records listing all the “correct” names
of the hellships, the cargoes they carried, the routes they
took and what happened to them. This is supported by recently
declassified radio intelligence reports, a wealth of archival
information and official documents from the US Air Force and
Navy.
From interviews with surviving POWs, he tells of the horrors
they experienced as they were crammed by the thousands into
the holds of old cargo ships and transported from place to
place to be slaves of the Japanese. He presents a detailed
picture of what happened to the more than 150,000 Allied prisoners
who were transported by these hellships and the 21,000 POWs
who died.
Many of the deaths were attributable to beatings, disease,
and a lack of food and water, but as Greg points out, many
more were caused by Allied torpedoes and bombs. He reports
that this so-called “friendly fire” was not always
accidental - apparently at times it was more important to
sink Japanese ships than to worry about POWs!
Greg has become a good friend and has helped us on many occasions
with information regarding the hellships and the POWs. I would
recommend this book to anyone interested in this aspect of
the POWs’ story.
The book is 334 pages, hardcover, with 20 photos and 4 line
drawings (ISBN 1-55750-482-2).
It is available online from any of the major internet booksellers
- barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com, or directly from the Naval
Institute at www.navalinstitute.org. The book can most likely
be ordered through your local bookstore as well.
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--- from the Director
Our apologies for the delay in getting this newsletter to press.
These past few months have been so full of activity and discovery
that we have very little time to attend to other matters. As mentioned
in our article on pages 3 and 9, we have had a wonderful time travelling
and visiting POWs and friends in several countries and have been
kept quite busy promoting our work.
The revamping of our website over the past few months has been another
huge undertaking and I want to thank my son, Bob in Canada, for
all his untiring devotion to us and the POWs in helping us to get
this big job done. He is our webmaster and has a first-class site
of his own at www.rcaf.com which tells the story of the Royal Canadian
Air Force from 1920 to the present. If you are interested in military
aviation history this site is well worth a look.
We are very excited about the discovery of the Inrin camps and look
forward to finding the actual site of the OKA Camp in the coming
month or so. We are also hoping to receive permission for the Heito
POW Memorial soon and that will bring on more work.
I would like to thank all those - both here in Taiwan as well as
overseas, who continue to support and encourage us in this work.
We get letters and emails from all over the world and it means so
much to have you behind us, helping us do what we do so that the
memory of these great men will “never be forgotten”.
Let
Us Never Forget !
| SPECIAL EVENT - MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW!
November will soon be here, and with it comes our Annual
POW Remembrance Week program. Once again this year, the two
main events are the POW memorial banquet on Saturday November
17, and the annual Remembrance Service at Kinkaseki on Sunday
November 18.
This year the British Trade and Cultural Office is managing
these two events, and the TPCMS is working closely with David
Coates and his staff to ensure their success.
As always, some of the former POWs and their families are
coming to Taiwan and we will be taking them on tours of the
camps and doing everything possible to give them a very meaningful
experience.
We invite all those in close proximity to Taiwan to join for
this great time. For further information you may contact the
POW Society, or Sarah Farrell at the British Trade and Cultural
Office in Taipei.
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