| WOOSUNG POW CAMP |
| Area captured by the Japanese from Chinese army at a cost of 40,000 Japanese lives. Camp layout and illustrations from the collection of Allan O'Guinn, a civilian contractor captured on Wake Island. |
| Woosung POW Camp Red Cross Report, LA Times, 23 August 1943: Note: The Red Cross Representatives were extremely biased in favor of the Japanese and deliberately dissembled in every report. Camp Report "A total of 1500 American civilians along with 48 British naval personnel and merchant seamen are interned in this camp near the Whangpoo River, Shanghai. [Note: Carefully omitted in any mention were the 203 China Marines and Wake Island military in this camp] The camp, originally an army barracks, consists of seven long huts, some smaller buildings and a large inclosure, which had been leveled to form recreation grounds, and two vegetable gardens. As far as is known, conditions in this camp are tolerable. The prisoners suffered severely from cold last winter, but the activities of the International Red Cross Committee delegate in Shanghai in providing stoves and fuel has improved the situation. Parcels, medicine, warm clothes and other necessities are sent into the camp under his direction twice a month. "Work is mainly agricultural and not heavy. Medical attention was not satisfactory at first but some improvements have been effected. Prisoners do their own cooking. With the help of parcels sent into the camp and the rations provided thy are able to produce satisfactory results." |
Camp History: First occupied in mid-January, 1942 by 1200 American civilians and military captured on Wake Island. On 1 Feb 1942, 202 "China Marines" arrived from Nanking. The Japanese camp commander was a Colonel Yuse. A few weeks later (date unspecified) 100 British POWs, survivors of a hell ship sunk in transit, arrived at the camp. Total at that time was 1502 prisoners. The first major movement of men out of the camp was on 20 Aug 1943 when 525 men were sent to Kobe. 400 of these men went to Kobe House and 125 to the Kawasaki #5-B camp, some 150 miles northeast of Kobe on Tokyo Bay. That camp [5-B] already had 125 POWs from the Philippines and one Dutch (Java) officer. Camp Illustrations: These are illustrations from the O'Guinn collection at the Hoover Institute Archives. Recommended Books: These books relate the experience of men in this camp. Magnino, L.A., Jim's Journey - A Wake Island Civilian POW'S story, Hellgate Press, Central Point (OR), 2001. Story of Jim Allen, captured on Wake and sent to Shanghai. Rescued at Niigata 5B. |