Hellships Memorial: Honoring the POWs Lost on Japanese Hellships
How the Hōfuku Maru Was Identified
For decades, the sinking location of the Hōfuku Maru was believed to be off Masinloc. Later evidence showed the wreck lay much farther south, off La Paz, San Narciso, Zambales.
Local fishermen and divers had long known of a large steel wreck in about 52 meters of water. In 2016 and 2017, Matt Gillan and the Sea Scan Survey team used side-scan sonar and reconnaissance dives to document a cargo ship split into two sections and partly buried in volcanic silt. Its identity was still unknown.
The breakthrough came in June 2025, when researcher John Duresky found a declassified Japanese after-action report filed by Kaibōkan No. 1, or CD-1, the lead escort for Convoy MATA-27.
The report included battle sketches, convoy positions, and a timeline showing that Hōfuku Maru was hit by aerial bombs and torpedoes and sank just north of Capones Island off the La Paz shoreline. This placed the sinking about 35 nautical miles south of the long-accepted location.
The evidence aligned. The wreck’s dimensions matched the builder’s plans for a Dai-ichi Taifuku-class freighter. Its damage pattern matched U.S. Navy Aircraft Action Reports and survivor accounts. Japanese POW death records placed the recorded location of death within 175 meters of the wreck. Convoy records showed that Hōfuku Maru was the only Dai-ichi Taifuku-class vessel and the only POW transport in Convoy MATA-27.
After nearly eight decades, the wreck off San Narciso has been identified as the Hōfuku Maru. More than 1,000 British and Dutch servicemen died in its holds. The site is now regarded as a protected maritime war grave and a known resting place for men who were never brought home.
What Were the Hellships?
During World War II, Japanese transport ships were used to move Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees between prison camps, occupied territories, labor sites, and the Japanese home islands. Survivors later called these vessels the Hellships because of the overcrowding, heat, thirst, disease, and suffering endured below deck.
Understand what a Hellship really was
Major Hellship Tragedies
These ships are among the best known in the history of Japanese POW transport during World War II.
About 1,780 American POWs were aboard when she was torpedoed on 24 October 1944. Only 9 survived.
About 1,620 POWs left Manila in December 1944 on a voyage through three ships. Fewer than 500 reached Japan alive.
Torpedoed off Sumatra on 18 September 1944. About 5,600 POWs and Javanese forced laborers died.
Of about 1,800 British POWs aboard, 828 died when she sank off China on 1–2 October 1942.
Contact
Hellships Memorial Location
Waterfront Rd, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Philippines.
Located on the Subic Bay Freeport (SBF), on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay. The memorial is located on the shoreline near the headquarters of the SBFZ, Bldg 229.
The sunken remains of the Oryoku Maru lie about 500 yards from the site.
Feel free to contact us with any questions.
Email: info@hellshipsmemorial.org
Phone (63) 928 281 7629
The Hellships Memorial Foundation is an independent organization and has no affiliation, financial or otherwise, with the Filipino-American Memorials Endowment (FAME). We do not receive funds from FAME, and donations made to FAME do not support the Hellships Memorial Foundation or its work. Gifts made through this site go directly to the Foundation’s research, the Global Hellships Casualty Roster, wreck documentation projects such as the Hōfuku Maru and Shinyo Maru, and our memorial initiatives. For questions about a donation, a Memorial Plaque, or about our work, please contact us at director@hellshipsmemorial.org.
The Hellships Memorial
The memorial exists to honor Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees who suffered and died aboard these ships. It is a place of remembrance, reflection, and historical awareness.