On 21 September 1944, the Hofuku Maru was sailing as the second ship in a Japanese convoy off the western coast of Luzon. On board were 1,289 British and Dutch prisoners of war, many of them already weakened after being forced to work on the so‑called Burma–Thailand “Death Railway”.
The conditions were extreme. There was no light, inadequate ventilation, no sanitary facilities and food and water rations that barely allowed them to survive. The ship carried no markings to indicate it was transporting prisoners.
When aircraft from the US Navy’s Task Force 38 attacked the convoy, they launched their torpedoes at what they viewed as a legitimate military target. One struck the hull of the Hofuku Maru.
The ship broke in two and sank in less than three minutes, with up to 1,000 prisoners still trapped in the holds. Those who managed to swim to shore were recaptured by Japanese forces. Of the 1,289 prisoners on board, 1,047 died.
For eight decades, the wreck remained undiscovered. Post‑war records were fragmentary and contradictory, Allied attack reports gave only approximate coordinates, and survivors’ testimonies differed on basic details. The families of more than a thousand dead soldiers had nowhere to go to remember them.
