Ube Branch POW Camp (Honshu Japan)
By Phillip West
Son of POW in Fukuoka #7, C.W. West

These notes summarise the information I have, as at July 2004, about the POW camp at Ube, originally known as Fukuoka 2 D. I have categorised the information under the types of headings used in Roger Mansell’s POW website to facilitate the inclusion of the information at this site. Comments in italics are guesses or suggestions as to how the information might be extended.

Some of the information may also relate to associated camps in Western Honshu.
Location & History
The camp was located in the industrial area of Ube, close to the inland sea (2). The POW’s worked down the Okinoyama coal mine, which at this time was part of a group known as Ube Industries (7). The mine itself was opened many years before in 1897, and eventually closed in 1967.

I believe Okinoyama is a suburb of Ube, but I don’t know if the mine can be placed in this suburb…there is a photograph on Wes Injerd’s site which seems to place Okinoyama near the coast, and certainly the Ube Industries article (7) mentions…”on the western coast of Japan’s largest island, Honshu”.

Hellship(s)
The initial draft of POW’s arrived from Java on the Singapore Maru on 27th November 1942. For a description of this journey see this site. NB the last part of this addr is hell_ship if you have any problems.

Summary of POW numbers on Singapore Maru
This summary comes from the Chenery papers. Captain Chenery was Adjutant to Lt Colonel Scott (SBO on the Singapore Maru). There are other sets of numbers (refs 9 & 10 to name just two) which differ in small degrees. Each account should therefore be carefully considered in regard to how much is memory, how much hard data etc

Boarded at Batavia: 1100
Left in Hosp at Singapore: 19
     Sub-total: 1081
Left in Hosp at Formosa: 21
     Sub-total: 1060
Deaths en route at sea: 63
     Sub-total: 997
Left Sick on board at Moji: 320
Remainder to camps: 677

Transition at Moji
On arrival at Moji the POW’s from the Singapore Maru were forced to endure several hours lined up on the wharf in the freeezing cold. Most of these men had only the tropical clothing they had worn when leaving Batavia, and many were suffering badly from the effects of dysentry.

The 677 men fit enough to continue on were split into 4 groups, according to the Chenery papers, as shown below:

Group 1 – 17 Officers (including Col Scott, Col Brigdin, Maj Graham, Maj Robinson, Captain Chenery) and 153 Other Ranks. 170 men all up.

Group 2 – Lt Col Hazel & Maj Allpass with 15th Battery (169 men in total).

Group 3 – Col Petrie, Maj Emett and 167 others

Group 4 – W/C Frew + RAF (169 men in total). [Frow per Stubbs report & Commonwealth Graves]

Group 1 were marched to a large barge and towed across the inland sea to Ube to form the basis of the camp which is the main subject of this document [Camp 7 on the IRC report (2)]. They arrived at 00.30 hours (27 Nov 42) with the men groaning in pain from the freezing cold conditions. The camp at Ube appeared to be luxury though, after such a dreadful journey. This group were then organised as a batallion of 2 companies each with 3 platoons.

From reading around material on the camps in this area it would appear probable that group 2 was also towed to Ube, and became POW’s at Higashi Misone (camp 10 on the IRC report (2) -this became Hiroshima 8D at surrender). Ken Attiwill’s book (9) describes this camp and the Singapore Maru voyage, and although he uses only first names of officers he mentions 15th Battery quite a few times.
Group 4 would appear to have been taken to Ohama -Fukuoka Dispatch #4 became Hiroshima #9 Branch. James McEwan’s book (10) describes this camp and the Singapore Maru voyage. He mentions C.O. as being named Frow which is too similar, I suggest, to Frew to be coincidence. Also McEwan was in the RAF. Group 3 probably ended up at Motoyama. Ken Attiwill describes how his camp (Higashi Misone) was bombed out in 1945 and all the POW’s were moved to Motoyama.

See also http://www.prisonerofwar.org.uk/autumn_2003.htm [search "Far East News"] another version of IRC notes on these camps. Far east news section mentions Petrie and Hazel in connection with the camps as outlined above.

A second draft of POW’s arrived 22/8/1944. Hellship not known for sure but may have been Hakusan Maru [Actual Rashin Maru]. This is based on some copies of emails I have which I would need to follow up with the original source before quoting, and the fact that a Captain C Petrovsky (RAMC) arrived at the camp on this date with a party of POW’s from Thailand.

Timeline
The timeline details that I have come from the Chenery papers (1) and my father’s capture card (3), kindly translated by Wes Injerd. These appear to match closely with the information already noted for Fukuoka 2 D (Hiroshima 5 D) as noted on Wes Injerd’s website (8)

26/11/1942 - Established (first POW’s arrived 27th November 1942)
01/03/1943 - Renamed Fukuoka 7B.
14/04/1945 - Transfer of control to Hiroshima 5 D.
10/08/1945 - Transfer (or rename ?) to Hiroshima 7.

Japanese Staff
The report of the IRC (2) names Colonel Sugasawa as the officer in charge of all the camps visited at that time and known as Fukuoka 6,7,8,9,10, and 11.

The senior Japanese officer(SJO) at the Ube camp appears to have been at the rank of lieutenant, and changed over time on an irregular basis. The list of SJO’s below was sourced from the Chenery papers (1). Although not given a particular time period a “Lt Sito” is mentioned as having met the POW’s on first arrival.

From To Name POW Opinion/Notes
28/11/1942 12/8/1943 Lt Kaneko Reported to have been concerned about the sick working but follows opinion given by Japanese doctor that marks most men as fit for work.
13/8/1943 20/7/1944 Lt Okada Weak, liar & thief – This resulted in another Japanese camp soldier (Sgt Inoue) becoming a bully.
21/7/1944 28/2/1945 Lt Normi Good man of the bunch
1/3/1945 30/4/1945 2 Lt Tahara Another good one
1/5/1945 Cessation Lt Hyashida Another bad one – ordered Jap mine personnel to beat POW’s who transgressed rules. Sgt Inoue becomes a bully again.

Photographs & Maps
No pictures or sketches of the camp have been discovered at this time. Note however that Ken Attiwill’s book (9) includes a sketch of Higashi Misone.

The photographs I have all show POW’s. Some of these photos may relate to a burying of ashes at a memorial site in April 1945. This burying ceremony is also mentioned in Ken Attiwill’s book (9). I attach these.

Camp description
I include JPEG versions of scanned documents relating to some of the camp events and orders. Note that the IRC reports also contain some descriptive data about the camp.
• Humiliation of Colonel E K Scott for refusing to sign declarations.
• Punishment of Lt C W West
• Camp orders
• Sample food ration orders

Note that several of the senior officers (Col Scott + 6 other officers) were transferred to Zentsuji on 29/07/1943.
Roster(s)

I have a roster dated 20/08/1945 and captioned “Composite RA Battery Nominal roll”. It appears to cover most of those POW’s who arrived on the Singapore Maru and were directed to this camp. It does not include the SBO at the time, who was not RA, but it does include some attached personnel such as signals. The total camp strength (shown below) at cessation of hostilities was considerably larger as it included those POW’s who arrived in August 1944.

British Officers WO’s OR’s
Army 11 4 259
Navy 1 - 1
Airforce - - 4
American
Army - - 2
Navy 1 - -
Total 13 4 266

Also, a point of possible contention, the Chenery papers make mention of an American naval doctor…Lt John G Feder [Guam, US Naval Hospital] who arrived at Ube (apparently from Moji) on 25/8/1943. Mrs M E A Jones(6) tells me that “Doc Feder” was definitely a POW with my Father (Lt C W West), and we have copies of photos of his children. The final camp roll notes the presence of 1 American naval officer, and the photo of the large group shows someone who appears to be a naval officer seated in the front row. The problem is that the list also records the presence of 1 British Naval officer and that Lt Feder’s name appears on the roster for Zentsuji camp as accessed from Mansell website.

Articles/Memoirs
In addition to the story by A G James regarding the Singapore Maru (mentioned in the hellship section), there are at least 2 other records or notes which arguably refer to this camp. These can be found in….
• Letters to crewman of a B-29 that dropped food. (which can all be attributed to Ube camp POW’s)
• “Freedom loosens the memory” anonymous memoir.

References & sources:
1. Chenery, Captain D J, Collection of diaries, notes, and papers, Ref No 85/53/1 & Con Shelf, Imperial War Museum, London. The Imperial War Museum have asked that their documents website be mentioned in any web publication referring to these papers……. “We are quite happy for you to cite Chenery's papers in the website which you are planning and we would only ask that you identify the collection as being in the Department of Documents, Imperial War Museum and perhaps add the Department's e-mail address (docs@iwm.org.uk) in case anyone using your site should then wish to contact us about the contents of the papers”.
2. Extracts from Camp reports of International Red Cross, Ref WO 224/190, Public Records Office, Kew, London.
3. West, C W, Japanese Capture card of, Ref WO 345/55, Public Records Office, Kew, London.
4. James, A G, “Hellship”, Memoir of his journey on the “Singapore Maru”
5. James, A G, “A V.J. Day Memory”, Article in unknown local newspaper, August 13, 1965.
6. Personal communications from Mrs M E A Jones, Widow of C W West.
7. Ube Industries Ltd., “A 100 year summary”, Website deactivated April 2009 http://www.c-direct.ne.jp/english/divide/10104208/4208_97/4208e_03.pdf
8. Japanese POW camp history, Wes Injerd website
9. Attiwill, Ken. The Rising Sunset, Robert Hale Ltd., London, 1957
10. McEwan, James. The Remorseless Road, Singapore to Nagasaki, Airlife Publishing Ltd., Shrewsbury, UK, 1997, ISBN 1-84037-301-6 [Out of print]