Davao Penal Colony #502
(DAPECOL)

Main Page      Philippine Camps

Dapecol - Abbreviation for "Davao Penal Colony," a POW farm labor camp

Davao - Small port city on southeast coast of Mindanao. The POW camp was located some ten miles northwest of the port. Camp was closed 6 June 1944 and the POWS were sent first to Cebu on the Yashu Maru. In Cebu, they were transferred to the Singoto Maru and moved to Manila and into Bilibid.

Davao Map


Assortment of images including Davao Penal Colony (courtesy of Frank Blazich) - see contents file for list of images; email us for hi-resolution images.
Rosters:
Actual Roster:
Found by Roger Mansell in NARA Record Group 407, Box 95 (Philippine files) and thoroughly cross checked against the Center's Primary data base. List was typed as of 15 April 1944 and buried. Container was located after the war.

Ask for complete data set with much more info (Excel or Quatro Pro formats)

Recreated Roster: From various reports and NARA records. Indicates names that "may" have been at Davao at different times.

Deceased Roster
Roster of men known to have died in this camp before it closed.


Special Links:
Voyage of the Oryoku Maru- survivors sent onward on the Enoura Maru and Brazil Maru
Escape From Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War by John Lukacs (2010) - Called the "greatest story of the war in the Pacific"
Related: Atrocities Against Allied POWs: What we knew and when, and how we reported the facts

Shinyo Maru- excellent overview of this tragedy when sunk by the USS Paddle; numerous interviews- by Eugene Mazza