History of POW camp Fukuoka #4B 28 Oct 1942 - 13 Sept 1945  Ramey Report. US Army report on Fukuoka #4 Affidavit of British Dr. Berkeley external link Affidavit of American Dr. Williams external link Affidavit of British Lt. Borrie external link OverviewThe primary function of Fukuoka Branch camp #4 in Moji, Kyushu, was to provide POW laborers for shipping, railroad, and other companies in the Moji harbor area. Its secondary functions were to provide a way station to organize and provide for groups of POWs newly arrived in Japan, and to serve as a “hospital” facility for POWs too sick to transport elsewhere as a consequence of their ill treatment during transport to Japan. The camp was located in north central Moji about 1/2 mile from the main port area. Its main structure was a former YMCA building that had been converted to hold prisoners by the addition of wooden floors and sleeping areas. The YMCA building was the main POW barracks throughout the war and also served as the camp hospital until late 1944, when a building across the street was procured for treating the most seriously ill prisoners. The permanent POW population varied in size, but was about 200-300 from late 1943 to the end of the war. At various times the camp held British, Canadian, Dutch, Australian, and American POWs. At liberation there were 304 men in camp: 102 American, 111 British and Commonwealth, and 91 Dutch. TimelineThe first POWsCamp Fukuoka #4 was established on 28 Nov 1942 with the arrival of approximately 250 British survivors of the hellships Dainichi Maru and Singapore. The prisoners were extremely ill with dysentery and most were unable to walk. The YMCA building was used as a primitive hospital facility and the men received only minimal medical treatment from a small Japanese medical staff and one British doctor and three medical orderlies from the Dainichi Maru. The death rate was extremely high. Eighteen men succumbed the first day, and by the 1st of Dec more than 50 POWs had died. On, or about, 30 Nov, the camp medical staff was supplemented by 19 Allied medical personnel, including 2 Australian and 3 American doctors from the Zentsuji camp, and 14 American corpsmen who had been captured on Guam. Working under strict Japanese control, in appalling sanitary conditions, with only the most primitive medicines, the medical personnel could do little to help. By the end of January 1943, 120 POWs had died. (External link to affidavit of Dr. R.B. Williams Guam Med Corps.)The second groupBy June 1943 conditions had stabilized, and the surviving POWs began to work on the Moji docks and at a Kokura-city steel foundry. They labored there, and at various camp jobs, until liberation or transfer. In Dec 1943 the men were joined by 70 Dutch POWs from Java who were transported aboard the Hawaii Maru. According to Japanese testimony the Dutch arrived in average health and were assigned to heavy labor after a two month convalescence. With the arrival of the Dutch, some 40 British prisoners were taken to camp Fukuoka #1 in Fukuoka, Kyushu.50 AmericansThe third major addition of POWs occurred with the arrival of the Nissyo Maru from the Philippines. Forty nine American enlisted men and one Warrant officer were interned in the camp on 2 Aug 1944. After a two month recovery period, they were assigned to heavy labor in the Moji area. In Sept. 1944 the medical group originally sent from Zentsuji was broken up and sent to other camps critically short of medical personnel.The last arrivalsIn January 1945 two final groups of prisoners arrived at Fukuoka #4. The penultimate group arrived on the 29th and consisted of 50 sick and dying Dutch and British POWs transferred from Fukuoka camp #1. Suffering from starvation, dysentery, and general ill-treatment and forced to labor while sick, 9 of these men succumbed in the following days and months. The very last group was made up of 50 POWs (49 American and one British) who struggled to Fukuoka #4 from the Moji docks in the late afternoon of 30 Jan 1945. The nearly naked men were among the 549 survivors of terrible voyage of the Brazil Maru—the last leg of the 49 day journey aboard the Oryoku Maru, Enoura Maru, and Brazil Maru from the Philippines to Japan. The men were diseased, demoralized, starved, and horribly dehydrated. Canadian RAF officer, E.F. Horton, who had been aboard the Dainichi Maru described their arrival, “…the second fifty had had no water or food for some days. As they were being helped or carried to the camp, they would jump into little puddles left by the rain in the roadway to drink the muddy, dirty water.” By mid April, 13 of the 50 had died.
 False color work map of Moji. (NARA RG331 Box921) Orientation is 90˚CCW from Moji city map. Primary work sites for prisoners from camp #4 were the Moji docks, railroad yard, and the camp "farm". End of the WarThe last months of the war saw the prisoners continue to toil in the harbor, railroad yards, and city (see work map). Rations decreased, but beatings by the guards continued as did deaths due to starvation, disease, and the lack of appropriate medicines. A final change to the camp roster came on 4 Aug 1945 with the addition of 30 Dutch, British, and Australian POWs from Fukuoka #1. After the war the former POWs remained in Moji until 13 Sept when they taken by train to Nagasaki to begin their journeys home. |
Hellships |
History Fuk 4B
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Ramey Report on POW camp Fukuoka #4
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