Enoura Maru
Definition
The Enoura Maru was a Japanese hell ship that was bombed and sunk by American aircraft on 9 January 1945 in the harbor of Takao (modern Kaohsiung), Taiwan, while carrying Allied prisoners of war who had survived the sinking of the Oryoku Maru. More than 300 prisoners were killed in the attack and its aftermath, part of the same transport ordeal that killed roughly two-thirds of the prisoners moved from Manila in December 1944.
Identities (Wikipedia/Wikidata/DBpedia)
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoura_Maru
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q26905456
- DBpedia: N/A
Also Known As
Hell ship Enoura Maru; Takao bombing of the Enoura Maru; sinking of the Enoura Maru.
Examples and Analogies
The Enoura Maru forms the middle chapter of the Oryoku Maru tragedy: like prisoners moved from one burning cell to another, the survivors of Subic Bay were packed into a second unmarked ship, which was destroyed by the same air power that had sunk the first, at a different port.
Usage Scenarios
The sinking is documented in POW histories of the Pacific war, referenced in memorials for American prisoners who died in Taiwan (mass graves at Takao), and used in studies of Japanese prisoner transport policy and Allied air operations around Formosa in 1945.
Strategies
Prisoners in the crowded hold improvised care for the wounded after the bombing and were made to recover and bury the dead at Takao; survivors were then transferred to the Brazil Maru for the final leg to Moji, Japan, where only a few hundred of the original 1,600-plus prisoners arrived alive in late January 1945.
Security and Safety Measures
The repeated sinkings dramatize the fatal gap in wartime prisoner transport protections: no marking, no notification, holds without shelter from blast or water. Postwar frameworks requiring protected status and marking of POW vessels trace part of their rationale to this sequence of hell-ship disasters.
Historical Context
After the Oryoku Maru was sunk in Subic Bay on 15 December 1944, the surviving POWs were shipped north and held at San Fernando, La Union, then loaded onto the Enoura Maru and Brazil Maru, reaching Takao in early January. On 9 January 1945, U.S. aircraft attacked the harbor; a bomb struck near or into the hold of the Enoura Maru, killing over 300 prisoners. After the dead were interred at Takao, the remaining prisoners continued to Japan aboard the Brazil Maru, where hundreds more died en route.
Challenges and Controversies
Casualty figures vary across Japanese, American survivor, and postwar tribunal records, and the handling and later commemoration of the Takao mass graves have drawn criticism from POW advocacy groups. The incident also contributes to the recurring ethical debate over Allied attacks on unmarked prisoner transports.