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Camp Information Summary Hiroshima #7B Ube Research by Phillip West |
Ube Branch POW Camp (Honshu Japan) By Phillip West Son of POW in Fukuoka #7, C.W. West
These notes summarise the information I have, as at July 2004,
about the POW camp at Ube, originally known as Fukuoka 2 D. I
have categorised the information under the types of headings
used in Roger Mansell’s POW website to facilitate the inclusion
of the information at this site. Comments in italics are guesses
or suggestions as to how the information might be extended. Location & History
The camp was located in the industrial area of
Ube, close to the inland sea (2). The POW’s worked down
the Okinoyama coal mine, which at this time was part of a group
known as Ube Industries (7). The mine itself was opened many
years before in 1897, and eventually closed in 1967.
The initial draft of POW’s arrived from Java on the Singapore
Maru on 27th November 1942. For a description of this journey
see this
site. NB the last part of this addr is hell_ship if you
have any problems.
This summary comes from the Chenery papers. Captain Chenery was
Adjutant to Lt Colonel Scott (SBO on the Singapore Maru). There
are other sets of numbers (refs 9 & 10 to name just two)
which differ in small degrees. Each account should therefore
be carefully considered in regard to how much is memory, how
much hard data etc
Boarded at Batavia: 1100 Left in Hosp at Singapore: 19 Sub-total: 1081 Left in Hosp at Formosa: 21 Sub-total: 1060 Deaths en route at sea: 63 Sub-total: 997 Left Sick on board at Moji: 320 Remainder to camps: 677
Transition at Moji
On arrival at Moji the POW’s from the Singapore Maru were
forced to endure several hours lined up on the wharf in the freeezing
cold. Most of these men had only the tropical clothing they had
worn when leaving Batavia, and many were suffering badly from
the effects of dysentry.
Group 1 were marched to a large barge and towed across the
inland sea to Ube to form the basis of the camp which is the
main subject of this document [Camp 7 on the IRC report (2)].
They arrived at 00.30 hours (27 Nov 42) with the men groaning
in pain from the freezing cold conditions. The camp at Ube appeared
to be luxury though, after such a dreadful journey. This group
were then organised as a batallion of 2 companies each with 3
platoons.
The timeline details that I have come from the Chenery papers
(1) and my father’s capture card (3), kindly translated
by Wes Injerd. These appear to match closely with the information
already noted for Fukuoka 2 D (Hiroshima 5 D) as noted on Wes
Injerd’s website (8)
The report of the IRC (2) names Colonel Sugasawa as the officer
in charge of all the camps visited at that time and known as
Fukuoka 6,7,8,9,10, and 11.
28/11/1942 12/8/1943 Lt Kaneko Reported to have been concerned
about the sick working but follows opinion given by Japanese
doctor that marks most men as fit for work. Photographs & Maps
No pictures or sketches of the camp have been
discovered at this time. Note however that Ken Attiwill’s
book (9) includes a sketch of Higashi Misone.
I include JPEG versions of scanned documents relating to some
of the camp events and orders. Note that the IRC reports also
contain some descriptive data about the camp.
Also, a point of possible contention, the Chenery papers make
mention of an American naval doctor…Lt John G Feder [Guam, US Naval Hospital] who arrived
at Ube (apparently from Moji) on 25/8/1943. Mrs M E A Jones(6)
tells me that “Doc Feder” was definitely a POW with
my Father (Lt C W West), and we have copies of photos of his
children. The final camp roll notes the presence of 1 American
naval officer, and the photo of the large group shows someone
who appears to be a naval officer seated in the front row. The
problem is that the list also records the presence of 1 British
Naval officer and that Lt Feder’s name appears on the roster
for Zentsuji camp as accessed from Mansell website. Articles/Memoirs
In addition to the story by A G James regarding
the Singapore Maru (mentioned in the hellship section), there
are at least 2 other records or notes which arguably refer to
this camp. These can be found in…. 1. Chenery, Captain D J, Collection of diaries, notes, and papers,
Ref No 85/53/1 & Con Shelf, Imperial War Museum, London.
The Imperial War Museum have asked that their documents website
be mentioned in any web publication referring to these papers…….
“We are quite happy for you to cite Chenery's papers in
the website which you are planning and we would only ask that
you identify the collection as being in the Department of Documents,
Imperial War Museum and perhaps add the Department's e-mail address
(docs@iwm.org.uk) in case anyone using your site should then
wish to contact us about the contents of the papers”. |