SS was a passenger cargo ship built in 1921 by the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Company,

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

for Nippon Yusen Kisen Kaisha. Serving as a troopship in World War II, the ''Rakuyō Maru'' was torpedoed and sunk by USS ''Sealion'' on 12 September 1944.

Service history

The troopship was part of convoy HI-72 and transporting 1,317

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n and

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

(POWs) from Singapore to Formosa (Taiwan). Another ship in the convoy was SS ''Kachidoki Maru'' with another 950 Allied POWs and 1,095 Japanese on board. On the morning of 12 September 1944, the convoy was attacked in the

Luzon Strait The Luzon Strait (Tagalog: ''Kipot ng Luzon'', ) is the strait between Luzon and Taiwan. The strait thereby connects the Philippine Sea to the South China Sea in the western Pacific Ocean. This body of water is an important strait for shipp ...

by a wolfpack consisting of three US submarines: , and . ''Rakuyō Maru'' was torpedoed by ''Sealion'' and sunk towards the evening. The ''Kachidoki Maru'' was also sunk with 488 people killed, mostly

POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

s. The Japanese survivors of the ''Rakuyō Maru'' were rescued by an escort vessel, leaving the POWs in the water with rafts and some abandoned boats. A total of 1,159 POWs died, including Australian

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player Winston Ide and Brigadier Arthur Varley. The dead included 350 POWs who were bombarded in lifeboats and killed by a Japanese navy vessel the next day when they were rowing towards land.Prisoners of War of Japanese 1942-45: ''Surviving the sinking of the Rakuyo Maru''
Linked 2015-02-20 On 15 September, the three submarines returned to the area and rescued 149 surviving POWs who were on rafts.Allbury, A. G. ''Bamboo and Bushido'' London Viking Press 1955 pp225-52 - survivor account. Four others died before they could be landed at

Tanapag Harbor Tanapag Harbor () is the primary harbor of Saipan, and is located on the western side of the island in the city of Tanapag. It is separated from the Philippine Sea by a Coral reef, barrier reef, located about 3 km (2 miles) off the shore. Thi ...

Saipan Saipan () is the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated Territories of the United States, territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to 2020 estimates by the United States Cens ...

, in the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st pa ...

References

External links

Video of the rescue of POW ''Rakuyo Maru'' survivors
* ttp://www.powresearch.jp/jp/archive/ship/rakuyo.html Rakuyo Maru (Japanese)br>Incredible JourneyIWM interview with survivor Arthur BancroftIWM interview with survivor Philip Beilby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rakuyo Maru 1921 ships Ships sunk by American submarines Maritime incidents in September 1944 World War II shipwrecks in the Philippine Sea Rakuyō Maru Japanese hell ships