On September 21, 1944, the Hofuku Maru was sailing as the second vessel in a Japanese convoy off the western coast of Luzon. On board were 1,289 British and Dutch prisoners of war, many of whom were already emaciated after being forced into labor on the notorious Burma–Thailand “Death Railway.”
Conditions aboard the vessel were harrowing. The prisoners endured pitch-black holds, inadequate ventilation, a total lack of sanitary facilities, and minimal food and water rations. Furthermore, the ship bore no markings to indicate it was transporting prisoners of war.
When aircraft from the US Navy’s Task Force 38 launched an attack on the convoy, they targeted what appeared to be a legitimate military transport. A torpedo struck the hull of the Hofuku Maru, causing the ship to break in two and sink in less than three minutes, trapping approximately 1,000 prisoners in the holds. While some managed to swim to shore, many were recaptured by Japanese forces. Of the 1,289 men on board, 1,047 perished.
For eight decades, the wreck remained lost. Post-war records were inconsistent, Allied attack reports provided only vague coordinates, and conflicting survivor testimonies made a precise location impossible to determine. For the families of the fallen, there was no place to mourn.
The document that changed everything
During the Second World War, the Japanese Empire converted more than 130 cargo ships and ocean liners into transports to move prisoners between forced-labor camps in Southeast Asia. These vessels, known by the prisoners as “hellships,” claimed the lives of approximately 20,000 Allied captives. Despite the scale of this tragedy, it remains one of the war’s least-documented episodes.
A major breakthrough occurred in 2025 when researcher John Duresky, working with the Hellships Memorial Foundation, discovered a digitized Japanese document that had previously gone unexamined. Written by officers aboard the convoy’s flagship, the document provided a precise timeline and map of the engagement, confirming the Hofuku Maru was the second ship in the formation when it was struck.
By cross-referencing this data with the USS Bunker Hill’s action reports, researchers determined the wreck was located more than 50 kilometers south of the area previously targeted by historians.
“We were stunned to find that Japanese sources contained such specific information regarding the attack location and the specific ships hit,” said Randy Anderson, founder of the foundation. “It provided the definitive proof we needed.”
Five dives and a three-dimensional model
Equipped with the new coordinates, an expedition team including explorer Josh Gates, underwater imaging specialist Evan Kovacs, and maritime archaeologist Calvin Mires deployed sonar equipment off the coast of Zambales. They successfully located the wreck at a depth of approximately 50 meters near the western coast of Luzon.
Following five technical dives, the team utilized hundreds of photographs to construct a three-dimensional photogrammetric model of the site. Despite volcanic ash from the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption covering parts of the debris, the team confirmed the hull’s dimensions, mast positions, and hold layouts matched original shipyard blueprints.
The wreckage appears to be split into two or three distinct sections, a finding that aligns with both American and Japanese historical accounts of the ship’s rapid destruction.
During the exploration, human remains were discovered among the debris, designating the site as a protected war grave under international law. To preserve the sanctity of the site, exact coordinates have been withheld from the public. While the Netherlands has pledged to work with international partners to honor the victims, the Hellships Memorial Foundation has begun the process of locating the descendants of the deceased. Although five hellship wrecks remain undiscovered, the recovery of the Hofuku Maru provides long-awaited closure for the families of those lost 80 years ago.
