The POW Experience Aboard the Hell Ship, The Arisan Maru

by Gabriel Corro

The 1997 documentary Sleep My Sons: The Story of the Arisan Maru claims that prisoners aboard the "hell ship" Arisan Maru prayed for bombs or torpedoes to end their misery. What conditions on the ship could have driven Allied prisoners of war (POWs) to such despair after surviving torturous forced labor camps for up to two years? Japanese military officials often viewed Allied POWs as expendable laborers rather than human beings, a perspective that justified the unsanitary, overcrowded, and unsafe conditions aboard ships like the Arisan Maru. Starvation, disease, and inhumane treatment made the Arisan Maru one of the most dreadful experiences in human history, leading some prisoners to pray for an end to their suffering.
​Before boarding the Arisan Maru, POWs endured death marches and prolonged periods in forced labor camps overseen by Imperial Japanese soldiers. These camps were marked by unsanitary conditions, disease, grueling labor, and meager food rations, leading to widespread starvation and death. For example, at Camp O’Donnell in the Philippines, thousands died within months due to malnutrition and disease.

Original caption: This picture, captured from the Japanese, shows American prisoners using improvised litters to carry those of their comrades who, from the lack of food or water on the march from Bataan, fell along the road. Philippines, May 1942. General notes: According to Colonel Melvin H. Rosen (U.S. Army Retired), this image is not a photograph taken during the Bataan Death March, but rather a photograph of a burial detail at Camp O'Donnell, the terminus of the "Death March". Mr. Rosen is a survivor of the "Death March".Use War and Conflict Number 1145 when ordering a reproduction or requesting information on this image.

Avery Wilber, a survivor of both a forced labor camp and the Arisan Maru, reported that at Camp No. 1 in the Philippines, up to 100 men died daily during the worst periods. This staggering figure underscores the camps’ horrors. The conditions and high mortality rates reflect the Japanese forces’ disregard for the humanity of Allied POWs, treating them as mere tools for labor.
After surviving these brutal camps, POWs were often transported aboard "hell ships" like the Arisan Maru to other prison camps. In mid-October 1944, approximately 1,782 POWs were loaded onto the Arisan Maru in Manila to be transported to Formosa (modern-day Taiwan). These hell ships were notorious for their appalling conditions, exacerbating the suffering of already weakened prisoners.
Aboard the Arisan Maru, captives were packed shoulder-to-shoulder below deck in the ship’s hold, with little ventilation or sanitation. Survivor Calvin Graef described conditions so cramped that diseases spread rapidly; he himself contracted an illness that temporarily blinded him. Standing room only meant some men died upright. Another POW, Tony Cichy, recalled receiving just two small bowls of rice over two weeks, often containing mere grains. On October 24, 1944, when U.S. submarines torpedoed the unmarked Arisan Maru, Japanese forces reportedly sealed the hatches, trapping many POWs below deck as the ship sank. According to historical accounts, only nine of the 1,782 POWs survived, making it one of the deadliest maritime disasters for POWs in World War II.
The starvation, overcrowding, and disease aboard the Arisan Maru reflect Imperial Japan’s systemic dehumanization of POWs, treating them as laboring machines. Survivors, like Calvin Graef, were left deeply traumatized. In his 1992 interview, Graef recalled, “I came out of it with the damnedest nightmares you’ve ever heard of.”

Works Cited
Brittan, Shawnee. Sleep My Sons: The Story of the Arisan Maru. Stillwater, OK: Shawnee Brittan, 1997.
Langholz, Jeff. “Opinion: Remembering 22 Iowans Killed by Friendly Fire 80 Years Ago.” The Des Moines Register, 24 Oct. 2024, https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2024/10/24/world-war-ii-friendly-fire-arisan-maru-pows-bataan-iowa/75812866007/.
Michno, Gregory F. “Hell Ships: The Ordeal of American POWs in the Pacific.” Prologue Magazine, Winter 2003, https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/winter/hell-ships.
“Trip Through Hell Left Ex-POW Scarred by Hate.” El Paso Times, 5 Apr. 1992.
Wilber, Avery. Account of His Years as a POW. Unpublished manuscript.