In the center of the park. Monument

A stonewall with several inscribed brass plate plaques attached to the front.

The Taiwan Hellships Memorial and the display are meant to compliment the 'World War II Hellships Memorial' located at Subic Bay in the Philippines which was also dedicated in January 2006. It is our hope that many people will learn the story of these ships and the terrible conditions the POWs suffered on them. Many former POWs have said that the time they spent on these ships was the worst time they had as POWs, diminishing even the Bataan Death March or the slavery on the Thai-Burma Railway and the mine at Kinkaseki.

The Enoura Maru

On January 9th 1945, the hellship Enoura Maru was anchored in Takao (Kaohsiung) Harbor, Taiwan. It was part of a convoy of ships that had left the Philippines on December 27th 1944 carrying mostly American POWs bound for Japan. 1,070 men had been crammed into the second hold of the Enoura Maru, and a further 236 men were on another ship, the Brazil Maru. On January 6th the men from the Brazil Maru were transferred to the Enoura Maru and about 470 men were moved from the second hold up to the first hold of that ship.

Then in the early morning of the 9th, just as the men were consuming their meager breakfast ration of rice, American aircraft from the USS Hornet launched an attack on Takao Harbor and bombed and strafed many of the ships. Several bombs fell on the Enoura Maru and one exploded near the edge of the first hold killing and wounding more than 300 of the POWs. The ship did not sink and the remains of the dead POWs were removed and buried in a mass grave nearby. In 1946 they were exhumed, and after a time of storage in Shanghai China, later sent to Hawaii and re-buried in 20 communal graves at the Punchbowl Cemetery and marked as 'Unknowns'.

Source: The Taiwan Hellship Memorial Website (http://www.powtaiwan.org): 

For more on Hellships see this website, site Yokohama for more on many of those who survived the “Enoura Maru” Hellship.  See sties Subic Bay and Sindangan in the Philippines for more other Hellship Memorials.

TAIWAN HELLSHIP MEMORIAL

Etching of the “Enoura Maru” Hellship

Information sign:

HONORING THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHO

DIED ABOARD THE HELLSHIP ENOURA MARU

 On January 9, 1945, the Japanese freighter Enoura Maru, en route from

the Philippines to Japan, with its human cargo of American and Allied

prisoners of war, was bombed by American carrier aircraft while anchored in Takao (Kaohsiung) Harbor, Taiwan.  About 300 POWs, nearly all Americans, were killed. Many of those who were injured died in the days that followed. The men were first buried in a mass grave at Takao Harbor.  

After the war the remains were exhumed and brought to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific “Punchbowl”.  Because most remains could not be identified, they were buried in 20 communal graves located in Section Q.  All of them are marked “Unknowns” and dated January 9, 1945.  The 20 graves are the final resting places of brave American and Allied POWs from the Philippines who had suffered in Imperial Japanese prison camps.  This memorial stone is dedicated to those men so that their story will never be forgotten.