Help Needed- Montevideo Maru

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FROM: Rod Miller Sydney Australia - Dec 2003 We have located one of the surviving Japanese sailors off the hell ship Montevideo Maru. After 60 years he has been able to supply some new information about the sinking of this ship. He suggests that there were Australian survivors of the sinking who were picked up and taken back to Japan. There is no evidence of this but after the war officers of the 2/22nd Battalion who were taken to Japan came back with a newspaper photograph of two men they stated were from Rabaul. They named them and gave their unit. It's a long story but it was dismissed by the government down here as the men in the photograph were not wearing Australian uniforms and the story under the picture started off with "From Hongkong, Guam, and Wake they come, over 800 American and British prisoners of war who"... The story goes on to say "the prisoners stevedoring at Shibaura branch of the Nippon Tsuun are comparatively young their average age is 17 and the oldest 64." I'm wondering if any of your visitors were working at Shibaura. I know this is a big ask but there must be survivors who might be able to have a look at the picture and possibly give an opinion. It is very low resolution to keep the file size small. The officers managed to hold onto this picture for the 3 years they were in Japan so they thought it as important. If you require any further information please don't hesitate to write. Kind Regards Rod Miller Sydney Australia