POW Rosters

Last updated on 01/18/2015 - Added Hellship Roster links for Clyde Maru, Nagara Maru, Pacifis Maru and Yuzan Maru; and POW Camp Roster links for Fukuoka #4-B and "Moji Hospitals".

Index:

    Part I - Hellship Rosters

    Part II - POW Camp Rosters

    Part III - Military Unit Rosters

    Part IV - Other Rosters


Part I - Hellship Rosters

Arisan Maru Roster by Bill Bowen
    The Arisan Maru was torpedoed by USS Shark on October 24, 1944 about 225 miles east of Hong Kong.  It was carrying 1,800 POWs at the time.  Only nine POWs survived and one of those died within the next two weeks.  Bill's father, Capt. William E. Bowen, was one of the POWs that died on the Arisan Maru.

Clyde Maru Roster by Jim Erickson
   
The following link goes to the Clyde Maru page on Jim Erickson's "POWs of the Japanese" web site:

Nagara Maru Roster by Jim Erickson
   
The following link goes to the Nagara Maru page on Jim Erickson's "POWs of the Japanese" web site:

Oryoku Maru Roster by Jim Erickson
Link #1 Oryoku Maru - recommended for use only by those with high-speed internet connections.  This file is in chart form to provide easier reading, but the drawback is that it is very large and much slower loading.
Link #2 Oryoku in CSV - recommended for those with dial-up connections.  It is a much smaller file and loads faster, but the CSV (Comma Separated Values) format is not as easy to read.
    The "Hellship" Oryoku Maru left Manila late on December 13, 1944 carrying 1,619 POWs in its cargo holds.  US Navy aircraft from the USS Hornet attacked the Oryoku Maru many times on December 14th as it moved north along the western coast of Bataan and they returned to finish the job on December 15th when the ship was in Subic Bay near Olongapo.  After the surviving POWs were allowed to jump overboard and swim to shore, the Oryoku Maru sank.  The ordeal of the surviving POWs continued through a Hellship voyage on the Enoura Maru and Brazil Maru from Luzon to Takao Harbor, Formosa (Taiwan now); bombing of the Enoura Maru at Takao on January 9, 1945 (again by aircraft from the USS Hornet) after all survivors had been consolidated on that ship and a final voyage from Takao to Moji, Japan aboard the Brazil Maru for the survivors of the Enoura Maru bombing.  About 550 POWs survived to reach Japan, but many of those died soon after arrival in Moji.  Jim Erickson has done a fantastic job of researching and compiling data concerning these POWs that left Manila on December 13, 1944 aboard the Oryoku Maru.  The file is very large, so be patient as you open it. Also, the chart containing the data on each POW is wide - be sure to scroll right to see all the columns of data.
Letter from Chaplain (Col.) John E. Duffy dated March 20, 1947:
    This letter was in response to a request from the Adjutant General of the Army for information about POWs that died during the Oryoku Maru/Enoura Maru/Brazil Maru series of Hellship voyages.  Father Duffy provided a list of names of those he knew died on those ships.  The images were obtained from Roger Mansell's files by Bob Hudson.  Since the list is not in alphabetical sequence, I have added an index that gives the page number for each name.  The index also gives each POW's serial number in the same format as the serial number appears in the NARA Database of World War II POWs.  Note: all items except the index are in "JPG" format with good resolution.  They are large files, so give them plenty of time to open.  Zoom in as needed. Click here to start.
    To find additional information about each POW on that database, keep the index open and open the NARA database search page by clicking this link - NARA.  Then on the Duffy Index use "Ctrl + C" keys to copy the number.  Next switch to the NARA database, use "Ctrl + V" keys to paste the serial number into the "Serial Number" field and search.

Pacific Maru Roster by Jim Erickson
   
The following link goes to the Pacific Maru page on Jim Erickson's "POWs of the Japanese" web site:

Shinyo Maru Roster by Jim Erickson
    The Shinyo Maru was torpedoed by USS Paddle on September 7, 1944 of the northwest coast of Mindanao.  It was carrying 750 POWs that had been working at the Lasang Airfield on Mindanao after the main group of POWs from Davao Penal Colony had been moved to Luzon.  Only 82 POWs survived.  They were helped by Filipinos to join guerrillas and later they were evacuated on the submarine, USS Narwhal.  Jim's father, Maj. Albert W. Erickson, survived the Oryoku Maru/Enoura Maru/Brazil Maru series of Hellship voyages and was liberated at Mukden.

Taikoku Maru Roster
    The Taikoku Maru left Manila on March 24, 1944 and arrived at Osaka, Japan on April 10, 1944.  There were no POW deaths during this voyage.  This file includes links a PDF copy of the original draft of 300 POWs from Cabanatuan.  Perhaps as many as eight more POWs were added to the manifest.

Yuzan Maru Roster by Jim Erickson
   
The following link goes to the Yuzan Maru page on Jim Erickson's "POWs of the Japanese" web site:
 

Part II - POW Camp Rosters

Bilibid Transfer Roster - Note: This is a very large file, so please be patient and give it time to load.  This link goes to the roster as prepared by Robert "Bob" Hudson.  The reason this roster contains so many names is that Bilibid was used by the Japanese as as a transfer camp as well as the main POW hospital on Luzon Island.  POWs that were being moved from other camps in the Philippine Islands to Formosa (Taiwan) or Japan were routinely moved first to Bilibid and held there until their ship was ready for departure.  Then the departing POWs were marched to the pier.  Bob has skillfully added information (when available) about each POW's prior camp and the "Hellship" taken for his trip north.

Bilibid Liberation Roster - This roster is a compilation of several rosters crossed checked against each other. They come from the National Archives (Record Group 407 Box 88, the MacArthur Museum, and a list of civilians interned at Bilibid contributed by Fred Baldassarre of the Battling Bastards of Bataan organization. This project which was conceived to combine all the partial rosters known to exist into one roster, is the most complete Bilibid liberation to date. Newspaper articles from the era have reported anywhere from 1200 to 1340 prisoners of war, military and civilian, liberated from Bilibid in February of 1945. This roster contains 1284 names. Great effort was taken by John Hicks to obtain information on British and Dutch POWs such as serial numbers, ranks and unit associations. Any additional information available on civilians was added to this roster. John and I spent many months collecting ,sorting and typing data on this spreadsheet. John B. Lewis, who commissioned this work for posting to his website, was invaluable with his direction and input to make this the most accurate and complete account of those interned in Bilibid. -  Robert L. Hudson

Cabanatuan Liberation Roster - This roster was created beginning with the images Roger Mansell made of the original roster at the National Archives.  The roster has been checked against the National Archives database of World War II POWs of the Japanese, Roger Mansell's extensive database of POWs of the Japanese and the ADBC database of POWS of the Japanese that was presented to NARA in April 2006.  Necessary changes have been made to name spelling, name sequencing and serial numbers.  Also, available information about military unit assignment prior to the surrender has been added.
    First, read the cover memorandum that sent the roster to the "Advance Echelon, USAFFE".  The Memorandum date (2 January 1945) obviously should be "2 February 1945".  Consider that this was written within 48 hours of the end of the "Great Raid", probably on a field typewriter and on a small field table (about 24"X36") and not far from the front lines of combat with the Japanese.  Then it is easy to excuse any misspellings of names, errors in serial numbers and the fact that many names were not in correct alphabetical sequence.  There is a link to a list of abbreviation explanations that may help people that are not familiar with military "lingo".
    Memorandum    Cabanatuan Liberation Roster    Abbreviations

Camp Casisang, Malaybalay, Mindanao-
    Bowler Papers - This link provides information about some of the men that were intended to go to Camp Casisang, the first POW Camp on Mindanao, following the surrender there on May 10, 1942.  Many of these men chose instead to "go to the hills" and become guerrillas when the others became POWs.  Col. (then Major) Robert V. Bowler had a three-page document listing these men.  The document is unusual in that it is dated May 26, 1942 (16 days after the formal surrender on Mindanao), has a Headquarters, VMF heading and contains "By command of Major General Sharp" at the end.  Bowler buried these papers in the vicinity of Malaybalay in May 1942 and returned early in July 1945 to dig up and turn in to X Corps the papers that became known as "The Bowler Papers".  An alphabetical index has been added.
    Organization Day Celebration - On September 20, 1942, the men in "Second POW Company" in Camp Casisang POW Camp were allowed by the Japanese to celebrate a combined Organization Day for Headquarters & Headquarters Squadron, 5th Air Base Group and 28th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group (H).  Alfred R. Young, Jr. (son of S/Sgt. Alfred R. Young) has provided images of the "Menu" and "Roster" that were prepared for that celebration.  Those images may be seen on his web site,
http://www.alyoung.com/My_Fathers_Captivity/Documents/4.13.0045.html, and in his book, My Father's Captivity.  Click on the following links to see transcriptions of the "Menu" and "Roster" plus and alphabetical index of the names.  The alphabetical index provides additional information about the men in those two units that may help persons searching for information about them.       Menu    Roster    Alphabetical Index
    Photos of Camp Casisang - These photos were provided by Bob Heer {Pvt. Robert B. Heer, 30th Bomb. Sqdn, 19th Bomb. Gp. (H) when he was a POW at Camp Casisang}.  Click on the "thumbnail" to see the full-size of the first two photos.  Click on the link to see a photo of Maj. Gen. Sharp and his staff.
                            Gen. Sharp & Staff

Fukuoka #4-B, Moji and "Moji Hospitals" - These links go to Jim Erickson's "POWs of the Japanese" web site.  Be sure to click on the links to sub-pages of each of these web sites.

Fukuoka #17, Omuta - This link goes to Linda Dahl's excellent "Japanese WW II POW Camp Fukuoka #17" web site.

Mansell - This link goes to the "LIST OF ALL JAPANESE PW CAMPS" page of Roger Mansell's "Center for Research, Allied POWS Under the Japanese" web site.  POW camp names that are shown in blue and underlined are links to additional information about that camp and many include POW rosters.  As the introduction states, the site is updated often, so check again later if you do not find what you want.

Palawan Massacre Roster by Lorna Nielsen Murray
    On December 14, 1944 the Japanese commander of POWs working on an airfield on Palawan Island received a message that an American convoy was southeast of Palawan and headed toward that island.  He ordered all POWs returned to camp.  Then the POWs were herded in to their air raid shelters, gasoline was poured into each end of the shelters and the gasoline was ignited.  When POWs tried to escape, Japanese guards shot at them with machine guns and rifles.  Some POWs managed to get to a seaside cliff and jump over.  Japanese guards managed to kill some of the escapees; however, eleven men were able to swim across the bay and join guerrillas.  The guerrilla leader contacted American forces and a U.S. Navy Catalina picked up the eleven survivors.  Lorna's father, Pfc. Eugene Nielsen, was one of the survivors.  An account of the massacre is on pages 212-215 of Surrender and Survival: The Experiences of American POWs in the Pacific 1941-1945 by E. Bartlett Kerr.
    Added on 06/08/2013:  Jim Erickson
has resolved the ambiguities noted by Lorna Murray when she provided her roster in February 2003.  He used records from NARA that Roger Mansell provided and confirmed the data with microfilms that he and John Eakin purchased.  Jim has posted a complete Palawan Massacre roster at https://sites.google.com/site/powsofthejapanese/Home/pow-camps/palawan-massacre-roster.

Senior American Officers - This link gives information about the consolidation of Senior American officers, including their aides and orderlies.  Soon after the surrenders in the Philippines, the Japanese began moving these personnel to Tarlac POW Camp.  Later they were moved to POW camps on Formosa Island (known as Taiwan since the end of World War II).  As Allied Forces got closer, these POWs were moved again.  The roster includes pre-surrender military unit assignments and notes giving each person's status at the end of the war.
 

Part III - Unit Rosters

1st Provisional Tank Group - This group includes the 192nd Tank Battalion, 194th Tank Battalion, 17th Ordnance Company, and the Headquarters Detachment.  Click on the name of each unit to see an alphabetical list of members of that unit.  This information was complied by the Bataan Commemorative Research Project of Proviso East High School, Illinois.  Click on the project name to see much more information about this award-winning project.

3rd Pursuit Squadron - This page provides images of pages from a notebook as provided by Bob Hudson.  The notebook states that it was prepared at Iba, Zambales Province as of December 8, 1941 and includes men that joined that unit later.  Information from the notebook has been placed in a spreadsheet and additional data, from reliable sources, about those men has been added to the spreadsheet.

4th Marine Regiment - This is a roster prepared from records provided by Martin Christie (E Co, 2nd Bn, 4th Marine Regt.) and augmented by information from other sources.

7th Material Squadron - This link goes to the roster page of the 7th Material Squadron, 19th Bomb. Gp. (H) site.

19th Bombardment Group - In September 1941, the 19th Bombardment Group was stationed in Albuquerque, NM when it was ordered to move to the Philippines.  The movement was made in two echelons.  The first echelon moved by rail to San Francisco and then by ship to Manila.  Personnel that moved in the first echelon are listed in Special Orders #135 dated September 20, 1941.  The second echelon flew from Albuquerque to Clark Field, PI in 26 B-17 bombers.  Personnel in the crews of those B-17s are listed in Special Order #1 dated October 17, 1941.  Links to those two orders and to an alphabetical index of all personnel in both orders are below.  The index will help to locate specific persons in the two movement echelons.  The copies of Special Orders # 1 and #135 were provided by former POW Robert B. Heer (30th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group) and his wife, Karen. The remainder of this information was provided by Robert L "Bob" Hudson.
    First echelon - Rail Movement
    Second Echelon - B-17 Crews
    Alphabetical Index for both echelons

59th Coast Artillery Regiment - This is a copy of the March 31, 1942 Monthly Personnel Roster provided by Al McGrew.

60th Coast Artillery Regiment (AA) - This link goes to the Corregidor.org web site to see a copy of the March 31, 1942 Monthly Personnel Roster provided by Al McGrew.

200th & 515th CA Regiments (AA) - This link goes to the "Names" page of the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Foundation of New Mexico web site.

Hq. & Hq. Battery, Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays - This link goes to the Corregidor.org web site to see a copy of the January 31, 1942 Monthly Personnel Roster.

Fort Mills, Corregidor - This link goes to the Corregidor.org web site to see a copy of the March 31, 1942 Monthly Personnel Roster.

Guam Rosters - This link goes to Roger Mansell's "Center for Research, Allied POWS Under the Japanese" web site.

Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron #3 - When most of the U.S. Navy ships departed the Philippines after the Japanese destroyed Cavite Naval Base, this squadron with its six PT boats remained and performed outstanding service until the last boat was finally destroyed on April 15, 1942.  This roster shows what happened to the 83 crew members of MTB Sqdn 3.

North China Marines - This is a sub-page of the North China Marines web site.

Submarine POWs - This link goes to a page of Paul W. Wittmer's Submarine Veterans web site that contains a list of submarine crewmen who became POWs during World War II.

USS Wake - This link goes to Roger Mansell's "Center for Research, Allied POWS Under the Japanese" web site.
 

Part IV - Other Files (Provided by Robert L. "Bob" Hudson)

Last Days of Bilibid - This document is written like a diary and is called a "Record of Events" covering 2/1/1945 through 2/10/1945 as written by Sgt. Ike Thomas, Medical Dept, Bilibid Prison.  Note:  References to the "7th Division" in this article should be to the "37th Division".

Movements of the 31st Infantry Regiment (US) - This document is a monograph written by Major Everett V. Mead while he was a student in Class #2 of the Advanced Infantry Officers Course at Ft. Benning, GA in 1947-1948.  It discusses the movements of the 31st Inf. Regt. (US) from December 7, 1941 - April 9, 1942.  The original document included six maps that could not be located.  Readers can refer to the maps in "The Fall of the Philippines" by Louis Morton to find the location of the 31st Inf. Regt. (US) - click on http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-P-PI/ and scroll down to the list of maps.  To read the history of the 31st Infantry Regiment (US) on their web site, open this link - http://31stinfantry.org/history.htm  Then click on "Chapter 6  Bataan and Corregidor 1941-42" to see the portion about the regiment's part in the defensive campaign in the Philippines.

USMA Deceased - A list of all graduates of the United States Military Academy who died while they were Prisoners of War held by the Japanese.