Enoura Maru Memorial Service - January 9, 2005

On January 9th, 1945, the Enoura Maru lay at anchor in Kaohsiung Harbor. A Japanese prisoner hellship, the Enoura Maru was bound for Tokyo with a cargo of American Prisoners of War (POWs) from the Philippines. It had come to Kaohsiung on December 31 and remained at anchor while the Japanese celebrated the New Year. During this time, the 1170 prisoners on board were not allowed to go ashore and were given no food and water and many men died.

At 11 am on that January 9th, American planes from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet came in from the east and commenced a bombing raid on Japanese targets in the Kaohsiung area. Taking the Enoura Maru for a cargo ship, several planes went straight for it, and the Enoura Maru took several hits. One direct hit went into the forward hold, killing over 250 men in one blast and injuring many others. After the planes had gone, the Japanese left the prisoners in the holds with the dead and mutilated bodies until January 12th when they began to remove the dead from the ship. More than 300 were buried on the outer spit of Kaohsiung Harbor in a mass grave. The surviving 890 POWs were finally put on board another hellship, the Brazil Maru, and taken to Japan. By the time they reached Moji only 450 were alive and within three months after arriving in Japan another 100 had died.

In 1946 the American Graves Recovery Team exhumed the bodies buried in Takao (Kaohsiung) and they were later re-interred in the US National War Cemetery in Hawaii.

Honoring the men who died…

The ceremony on the dock at Kaohsiung Harbor

On January 9th, 2005, the 60th anniversary date, 40 to 50 people gathered at Kaohsiung Harbor for a remembrance service and the laying of two wreaths on the waters. Opening remarks were given by Michael Hurst, Director of the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society; Terry Crutchfield of Kaohsiung read the poem “The Man We Never Knew.” Robert W. Forden, head of the Kaohsiung

The guest of honor at the ceremony was Charles Towne one of the 18 remaining POW survivors of that day still alive. Eighty-four years old, Towne still spry and jovial, had made the trip to Taiwan to specifically attend the service and remember his comrades. Sixty years previous Towne had had to remain on board the prison ships, so in a touch of irony, it was the first time he actually set foot on Taiwan soil. Present also was the seventy-six year old Taiwanese Sun Shui-lian who as a teenager had witnessed the bombing sixty years ago.

Former POW survivor Charles Towne sharing memories of the fateful day on the Enoura Maru in 1945.

After the ceremony on the docks of Xinguang wharf, the group boarded a cruise launch to lay wreaths on the waters where the Enoura Maru had been anchored. It was a time for all present regardless of country to remember the many from the past that had sacrificed both for their own countries and for the cause of freedom.

Laying a memorial wreath in the harbor at the spot where the Enoura Maru was bombed.
(Photo courtesy – Taiwan Apple Daily Newspaper)