OMINE Fukuoka Camp 05B-Omine

Main Page     Main Camp List     About Us

Source: Description and Time line courtesy of Wes Injerd Fukuoka 5B Omine Furukawa Kogyo OMINE Kogyo-Sho) FUKUOKA-ken, TAGAWA-gun, SOEDA-machi Time Line: 22 Jan 1943: Established as OMINE Branch Camp 1 Mar1943: Renamed 5-B 1 Dec 1943: Renamed 8-D Aug 1945: Renamed 5-B Sep 1945: rescue effected Hell Ships: Taiko Maru; other not verifiable yet.. From the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society - this note: "In early March 1945 a group of British POWs entered the camp. They came from Taiwan on the hellship Taiko Maru and remained at Omine 5B until the end of the war. POW Albert William Martin, 80th Anti-Tank Reg't. R.A. (see below) was among this group of men." New Article about POW's rescue- Montreal Daily Star (no longer published) Limited records of the camp activities can be found at the National Archives, Record Group 389 [Records of Provost Marshall General, American POW Info Bureau], Box 2123. Special Pages for all Fukuoka Camps - A must see!

Fukuoka Camp: 5-B ,Kawasaki-machi, Fukuoka pref, Kyushu Island Location: Area Map (Soeda-lower right quadrant) See Detail MAP Caution: Fukuoka #5 is not Hiroshima #6. Though both were called "Omine camp", Fukuoka #5 was in Fukuoka Pref. and Hiroshima #6 was in Omine-machi, Yamaguchi Pref., Honshu (near UBE). It's very easy to confuse the two camps. In Fukuoka #5, 8 British 94 by drinking methyl alcohol 45.09.07), 1 Australian and 12 Canadians died. Slave Labor: Coal mining. See translation (PDF) of Japanese provisions for handling (employment as slaves) of POWs in this mine.[Source: RG 331 Box 922, transcribed by Vince Lopata, Secretary, HKVA 'C' Force Project] Rosters: Americans British Roster not verified Canadians Eternal link- excellent research on Fukuoka #6 on Honshu Island Deceased: British, Australian and Canadian as list in Japanese records- External link-pdf file The rosters are located in Record Group 407 [Records of the Adjutant General's Office] known as "The Philippine Collection". The rosters are listed by camp name, e.g. "Fukuoka #5- Omine". These records are multiple in nature and have to be correlated for each camp. There is a roster prepared by the "Rescue Teams", one by the ranking allied commander, and one supplied by the Japanese. If you attempt to correlate the three, we find it takes at least two man weeks of work to resolve "most" of the discrepancies. Would you care to volunteer? Books: "1220 Days in Hell" by Robert C. Daniels- tracks experiences of U.S. Marine Edmond Babler. Excellent description of hell ship Noto Maru and this camp. Worth price of purchase. Sole defect is major error in his description of Palawan massacre. External Link: George T. Palmer, Royal Canadian Rifles- Author of the remarkable memoir "Dark Side of the Sun"- worth twice its price just for the many illustrations and excellent reportage of the Canadian's experiences. Pictures (sketches) of this camp.