Junyō Maru

1944

Sumatra, Javanese rōmusha, the Allied submarine Location: Indian Ocean, off western Sumatra · Coordinates: 2.85°S 101.05°E · Casualties: 5,620 · Survivors: ~680 · Depth: abyssal · not located · Cause: submarine torpedo — Torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Tradewind at 16:12 on 18 September 1944, 75 nautical miles off the west coast of Sumatra. Carrying 2,200 Javanese rōmusha forced labourers, 1,377 Dutch POWs, 64 British/Australian POWs, and about 300 Japanese guards. Most Javanese were battened below and drowned when she sank in under twenty minutes. · Fate: abyssal · not located · Type: hellship · merchant transport · Tonnage: 5,065 tons · Flag: Empire of Japan · Launched: 1913 Japanese merchant ship converted to transport, carrying 2,200 Javanese rōmusha forced labourers, 1,700 Allied POWs, and a few hundred Japanese guards from Batavia to Padang. Torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Tradewind off the west coast of Sumatra on 18 September 1944. 5,620 dead, a casualty toll exceeded only by the Wilhelm Gustloff, the Goya, and the Doña Paz. Few of the Javanese forced labourers, conscripted to build the Sumatra Death Railway, are listed by name anywhere. The Vessel The Junyō Maru was a Japanese steel-hulled cargo ship, built at the Robert Duncan & Co yard at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1913 as the British merchant vessel Ardgorm. She was 124 metres long, 5,065 gross tons, and powered by a triple-expansion steam engine. Her original British service had been as a general cargo ship on the Atlantic and Mediterranean trade routes. She was sold in 1927 to a Japanese shipping company and renamed Hozan Maru; she was subsequently sold again in 1938 to the Baba Shoji Company of Japan and renamed Junyō Maru (Japanese: "Happy Cloud Ship"). By 1942, after 29 years of service, she was an old and progressively deteriorated ship; she had been requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Army for wartime transport service. Her specific operational role from 1942 onwards was the transport of Allied prisoners of war and conscripted Asian civilian labourers (specifically Javanese rōmusha workers) between Japanese-controlled territories in Southeast Asia. The rōmusha labour system involved the conscription of approximately 4 million Javanese civilians for forced labour on Japanese military construction projects; the transport of rōmusha personnel between Java and other Southeast Asian construction sites was a significant operational requirement of the Japanese military administration. Her master on her final voyage was Captain Kiyotake Kamiya, 48, a Japanese merchant marine officer. Her complement on 18 September 1944 was approximately 6,520 persons: approximately 2,3 The Disaster At approximately 14:30 on 18 September 1944, HMS Tradewind detected Junyō Maru at approximately 4,500 metres range in the Sunda Strait, approximately 15 kilometres northwest of Muko-Muko on the Sumatran coast. Maydon's tactical assessment was standard: an unescorted Japanese merchant ship of approximately 5,000 gross tons, making approximately 8 knots on a standard coastal route. Maydon's attack was conducted from approximately 2,000 metres range using HMS Tradewind's bow torpedo tubes. Four torpedoes were launched at approximately 14:42; two of the four torpedoes struck Junyō Maru at approximately 14:45 on 18 September 1944. One torpedo struck the forward portion of the ship; the second struck amidships. The torpedo damage was catastrophic. The combined torpedo impacts opened two substantial hull breaches; Junyō Maru began to settle immediately; within approximately 20 minutes, she was substantially submerged by the bow. The specific tragedy of the sinking was the inability of the prisoners and labourers to evacuate from the below-deck spaces. The Japanese crew had secured the below-deck hatches to prevent the prisoners' escape during the voyage; the explosion damage had compromised some of the hatch systems, but the majority remained sealed. The below-deck passengers, including the approximately 2,300 Allied prisoners and the 4,200 Javanese labourers, were predominantly trapped in the submerging ship's lower compartments. SS Junyō Maru sank at approximately 15:05 on 18 Sept