Fukuoka Branch Camp #8 Inatsuki

Fukuoka POW Camp #8
Inatsuki

Fukuoka #8 Branch POW Camp
Location:
FUKUOKA-ken, KAHO-gun
INATSUKI-machi
Satellite map
Aerial (Mar. 1947; courtesy of Japan Map Archives)
Memorial sign (baseball field) - Courtesy of Japan POW Network
Area map

Timeline:
3 Oct 1943: Established as Fuk-19-B
19 Apr 1944: Renamed Fukuoka 11-D
Mar 1945: 131 Dutch and 69 Americans arrive from Tanagawa POW Camp (Osaka)
Aug 1945: Renamed Fukuoka 8-B
Sep 1945: Rescue effected

Photographs:

Aug. 26, 1945 aerial photo

Fukuoka #8 POW camp

Japanese pics of this camp, and Yamano

British COFEPOW Story and pictures of Christmas 1944 at Inatsuki (original photo)

British Group at rescue: John Baxter is pictured third from right in the front row wearing a peaked cap. The picture was taken after the Japanese surrender by a Japanese photographer who was 'persuaded' to take it as a record of the physical condition of the prisoners. In The Diary of a Japanese P.O.W., John Baxter tells of the beatings and torture he witnessed first hand. One local Indonesian who traded some bananas with a prisoner was tied to a tree with barbed wire and left in the scorching heat. He also tells how every opportunity was taken to sabotage the Japanese war effort. Engines that they were instructed to repair left the workshops with nails or fragments of metal inserted inside them. Two hundred men died from malaria, dengue fever, dysentery and beriberi in the first six months alone.

Photos from John Marrison (PDF) - see Frank Marrison diary above. Also contributed was this unique commemorative fan with Marrison's history inscribed, dated Aug. 31, 1945:
FUK-08 Marrison Fan01.jpg
FUK-08 Marrison Fan02.jpg
FUK-08 Marrison Fan03.jpg
FUK-08 Marrison Fan04.jpg

Labor:
Prisoners used as slaves in a coal mine of the Yamano Coal Mining Company, under Mitsui Mining.

Hell Ships:
251 British prisoners arrived 13 Oct. 1943 on the Ussuri Maru. 151 Dutch prisoners arrived on 5 Dec 1943 on the Hawaii Maru; British and Dutch Army medical personnel were present in both groups. The Americans had earlier arrived at Moji (1 Sep 1944) on the Canadian Inventor (aka MateMate Maru) after almost 60 days at sea.

Rosters:
Total = 573 POWs (274 Dutch, 233 British, 66 American)
(Rosters located in Record Group 331 Box 920)
Capt. Peter Williams, Royal Artillery, was overall prisoner camp commander
Americans
British
Australians
Dutch

Original rosters
FUK-08 Rosters 1946-02-16 - ORIGINALS
Deceased roster (external PDF file)

Reports and Affidavits:
Gibbs Report - A postwar summary based upon interviews with Japanese officials, it contains details of the conditions and history of the camp.

Fred Chick statement

Sylvan E. Murray - Info and news article, family scans courtesy of Karli Kittine, granddaughter

FUK-08 Watson and Wellings affidavits

Frank Marrison Diary (PDF, DOC)
"My father, Frank Marrison, was a prisoner in Camp No. 8, Inatsuki-machi, Kamo. He was in the 77th Welsh HAA." -- John Marrison

Books:
"Missing Believed Killed" by John Baxter, British POW survivor

Ottens, Harbert (image 1 - image 2; courtesy of daughter, Sekiena Merlo)

Here is a copy of the photo which you may post on your website. My father is the man in the light colored shirt, pipe in mouth and wearing eye glasses. The photo indicates on the reverse that it was taken on Sept 3, 1945. One of the other men is Joop Moerman but I cannot make out my dad’s writing for the third man. His military record indicates my dad was taken as a POW on March 9, 1942 in Java and then transferred as follows:

Jan 7, 1943 Singapore
Jan 22, 1943 Siam (Thailand)
Aug 10, 1944 Japan
Sept 21, 1945 Freed from captivity
Sept 26, 1945 Transferred to Manilla
Dec 5, 1945 Returned to service