Oryoku Maru and it's gun in Subic Bay

[Karl Welteke]

Friends
This is an interesting album with 36 pics about the Japanese Oryoku Maru which caused the death of 100s of Allied Prisoners of War in Japanese Hands. Particular, it is about the gun that came from there and is still displayed in Subic Bay.
Here is the URL:

app.photobucket.com/u/PI-Sailor/a/e91f78f3-6f9b-4639-b651-28f1752d7bd3

It has a 1944, a 1952 and 1953 image.
Karl




Updated as of 2017-10-18


URLs for Hell Ships, Oryoku Maru & Hell Ships Memorial

The Hellships Memorial is Subic Bay
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1203/hellships-memorial-subic-bay




Naval Officer honored at Hell Ships Memorial, Lt. N. Minter Dial, CO of USS Napa AT-32, perished on the Oryoku Maru.
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/177/naval-officer-honored-hellships-memorial




Father Found by Capt. Duane Heisinger, a thread about a book from Capt. Heisinger about his father who perished on the Oryoku Maru.
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1698/father-capt-duane-heisinger





Oryoku Maru and its gun at Subic Bay, a thread in our forum with links to albums about the gun:
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/390/oryoku-maru-gun-subic-bay



Photos of the Oryoku Maru in sequence from Manila to Subic Bay from David Demetherell
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1601/oryoku-maru



The Hell Ship Montevideo Maru Plaque Unveiling Ceremony took place on 1st July 2009 at the Hellships Memorial in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, the former US Naval Base.

corregidor.proboards.com/thread/490/ship-montevideo-maru-plaque-unveiled



The massacre of hundreds of British prisoners of war by Japanese sailors during the Second World War was covered up by the Government, it has been claimed.

corregidor.proboards.com/thread/732/japanese-massacre-ship-survivors-cover



Filipino American Memorial Endowment (FAME) Projects, including the Hellships/ Hell Ships Memorial in Subic:
filipino-americanmemorials.org/projects/




The Oryoku Maru story compiled by 4 survivors in 1983
www.oryokumaruonline.org/oryoku_maru_story.html


West Point Japanese-pow Home Page
www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/



A web page from the US-Japan Dialogue on POWs webpage. It is a book about a son's search for his father, perished on the Oryoku Maru tragedy:

www.us-japandialogueonpows.org/Heisinger.htm


Celebrating the life of Duane Heisinger, a joint US Congress Resolution 2006, #5082
lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?062+ful+HJ5082ER+pdf



List of Hell Ship Voyages in Chronological Sequence of Departure Date
www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/ShipsNum.htm



The album about the Hell Ships Memorial Dedication on the 22nd Jan 2006 with 50 images.

s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/2006-01-22%20Hell%20Ships%20Memorial%20Dedicated?sort=9&page=1




Album of plaque for, Lt. N. Minter Dial, CO of USS Napa AT-32, perished on the Oryoku Maru in Karl’s Photobucket account.
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/USS%20Napa%20AT-32%20Lt-Dial%202008-04-06?sort=9&page=1



This is an album with pictures of Oryoku gun in Subic Bay, specifically in front of the American Legion Post #4 on Magsaysay Drive in Olongapo City.
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/SBFZ%202009/Oryoku%20Maru%20Gun%202009%20and%20older?sort=6&page=1



This is a URL to a group of albums about the Hell Ships Memorial:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial?sort=9&page=1



An album about two new plaques and the other ones at the Hellships memorial:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/2%20new%20Hellship%20Plaques%202012-06-24?sort=9&page=1


An album of the Hell Ship Montevideo Maru Plaque Unveiling Ceremony took place on 1st July 2009 at the Hellships Memorial in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, the former US Naval Base.
I was able to attend and shot these 35 images:

s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial/Over%201000%20Aussie%20Dead%202009-07-01?sort=9&page=1

[sherwino]

My grandma gave us old 1 peso coins (dating back to 1905 and so on) as some of our inheritance. I was told that my grandpa recovered them from Subic bay thru diving. Now my imaginations run wild. Those coins could've been from the POWs of Oryoku Maru. Or they could've been from the salvage operations off Caballo Island and was supposedly bound for Japan. Each grandchildren were given 3 coins. A total of 30 coins. Why did grandpa had a dive in Subic bay, I wish I had asked him. This forum is a treasure trove of information about my interests in WWII. Amazing website.

[Karl Welteke]

MORE TO THE HELL SHIP ORYOKU MARU STORY

Only yesterday someone asked me about the Oryoku Maru Gun in Subic Bay. I looked up the URL of the album mentioned above; it is still a good link! Then I looked up this Corregidor.org forum URL and decided it needs more flesh to the story and it should have some pictures shown!

The Oryoku Maru is a horrific story of Allied POWs (mostly Americans and mostly Officers) in the hands of the Imperial Japan military. There is much written about this tragedy in the www. I picked this one and pasted a few sentence or paragraphs from it into here:
www.oryokumaruonline.org/oryoku_maru_story.html

The lead paragraph from the above URL:
The Oryoku Maru Story is taken from a legal summary from the War Crimes Trials and it is this summary that Mr. Brown very aptly renamed The Oryoku Maru Story. It describes the events that occurred to the 1,619* POW's who were loaded aboard the Oryoku Maru in Manila, P.I. on December 13, 1944, through the arrival of approximately 450 survivors, in Moji, Japan on January 29, 1945. (*Please note that due to confusion during boarding that no one has a precise, exact number of POWs.)

Though not included in The Oryoku Maru Story, in Japan the POWs were eventually sent to various work camps where they were used as slave labor. Living conditions, lack of medical attention, lack of an adequate diet, combined with the trauma of the voyage to Japan accounted for the deaths of approximately 161 more men in the weeks following arrival.

In summary, of approximately 1,619 men who boarded the Oryoku Maru, 450 survived the voyage to Japan; of those 450 survivors, 161 died in Japanese work camps. That left only 271 men of the original 1,619 who survived to be liberated in August 1945. It staggers the mind.
The ship got sunk on the 15th Dec. 1944 in Subic Bay, the wreck is located close to the Alava Wharf Extension near the former Naval Base HQ and even closer to the former Naval Supply Depot HQ.

Here are some sample pictures from my album above:




Y2---this image of the Oryoku Maru, under attack in Dec 1944, came from www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/photos.htm. This is just off the Alava Extension Wharf today. American prisoners of the Japanese were finally allowed to abandon ship by swimming, see the splashes of the swimmers. On the net you can find tons of material of this ship "Oryoku Maru".



Y3--- the Oryoku gun is lifted out of the drink in 1952. In back one can see work on Cubi Point Naval Air Station has started. This image came from Paul Daudet of Grants Pass, Oregon who was a crew member of the USS Mender at the time of their salvage work 1952, to cut away part of the Oryoku Maru superstructure to make the waters navigational. He had sent this image to Sgt Holub, the web master of www.subicbaypi.com/ who let me use it.



Y4--- the Oryoku Maru Gun at the Rizal Gate of the former Subic Bay Naval Base in 1953. This is how primitive the Base Exit at Rizal Gate looked in 1953. I understand the Seabees had this memorial constructed of the Oryoku Maru gun in 1953. This image came also from www.subicbaypi.com/ and had been donated by a Service Man to him.



Y5---where approximately the Oryoku Maru is resting today, where the old Rizal Gate was and is now once again and where the gun is today.



Y6---the Oryoku Gun today in front of American Legion Post # 4, Olongapo City, Philippines.



Y7---Can you spot the gun? It is the 3rd building from the right at the right side of Magsaysay Drive looking from the viewer site. I don't remember where this picture came from but it is not from me.



Y8---one of three plaques on the Oryoku Maru Gun Memorial Marker.



Y9---this is a 2009 picture. I guess I deserve to get on the picture with the Oryoku Maru Victims Memorial. Notice I didn't try to hide my spare tire, I attained it over the last 10 years. Jesus, I can’t believe it; I walked this street the 1st time in 1962 on Shore Patrol.

Note 1: A hell Ship Memorial was built 2006, near by the former Naval Base HQ, the location was picked mainly for the reason that the Oryoku Maru is still sitting there, nearby, on the bottom of this former Naval Base. Since I live here in Subic Bay I witnessed the inauguration of the Hell Ship Memorial and many ceremonies afterwards.

I established many albums about the events at the Hell Ships Memorial in Subic Bay and they are as sub albums under this group album URL:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/SBFZ%20Ex%20Naval%20Base%20Subic%20Bay/Hellships%20Memorial?sort=9&page=1

Note 2: There were many contributors to that Memorial but two persons were the leaders in this project: Duane Heisinger and Randy Anderson. You can find out more about them in the www.

Note 3; The very Randy Anderson will be attending the Hell Ship 70th Shinyo Maru Commemoration on September 7, 2014 at the Municipality of Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte.
Wikipedia says this about the SS Shinju Maru:
The USS Paddle attacked it on September 7, 1944, off the coast of Zamboanga del Norte, Mindanao. There were 750 American prisoners of war aboard. Some Japanese guards shot prisoners as they struggled from the holds or were in the water. 688 died when the ship sank, leaving only 82 survivors; 47 of 52 Japanese guards died. The survivors were later picked up by a US submarine.

[dmether]

Can we dive on the site?

[Karl Welteke]

It is too difficult to arrange because it is at the busiest spot in the harbor, plus I have heard from older divers, that we flattened out the hull with explosives so the carriers can get to the new Alava Extension Wharf. Sometime when a Navy ship is in the wreck is within the ships security zone and I remember we could not even get over the spot to lay a wreath.

[Karl Welteke]

The Oryoku Maru image from this web page:

www.oryokumaruonline.org/oryoku_maru_story.html

You have to go to the photo page.

I just reread the above web page to review the tragic story of this Hell Ship and remind myself of the criminal behavior of the Japanese authorities and their service personnel!




Za295. Oryoku Maru from Ms. Tucker Bruun.

This picture of the Oryoku Maru came from Ms. Tucker Bruun, site owner of the Oryoku Maru Online. Here is the web site URL again:
www.oryokumaruonline.org/oryoku_maru_story.html

[Deleted]

Hello Karl,

I am researching the capture, imprisonment, and death of a distant cousin who survived the sinking of the Oryoku Maru and two subsequent Hell Ships only to die at the Fukuoka 17 POW camp in February, 1945. According to one POW roster, this cousin was a civilian working with the Bureau of Yards, Manila (US Navy shipyard?) at the time of his capture but, I have not been able to confirm this nor, do I know what he was doing or how long he had been in the Philippines.

Ms. Tucker Bruun's website is dedicated to the memory of her father and all other POWs who died when the Oryoku Maru was bombed and sunk in Subic Bay. Her father, Othello Christian Bruun, was the chief paymaster at the Navy Yard in Manila. I tried to contact Ms Bruun via the email address on her website but it no longer works. I'd like to ask her if she may know of any employee lists or other information about personnel at the Navy Yard where her father worked.

Do you know of a current, working email address available for Ms Tucker?

Thanks for any info.

Dave

[Karl Welteke]

Hello Dave D
Sorry for my late answer, I was exploring the west slopes of the Sierra Madre in Bulacan.
And I am also sorry that I cannot help you. The picture was lifted from the web page of Tucker Bruun but I never had any communication with her or anyone else on that web page!

[Karl Welteke]

Japanese after action report of attacks on Oryoku Maru.

One member of the authors who wrote this new book: Relentless Hope: A True Story of War and Survival, by David L. Britt sent us a Japanese after action report of attacks on Oryoku Maru.

This contribution has been posted here, scroll down: corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1601/oryoku-maru?page=3

One sample images (marked up by Karl) is provided here for your interest:



Zf253. Page 41a (the second zoomed in sketch) of the Japanese after action report of attacks on Oryoku Maru provided by John Duresky of the new book author team: Relentless Hope: A True Story of War and Survival, by David L. Britt.