Buyo Maru

In 1943, Buyo Maru became one of the earliest and most controversial Japanese POW transport disasters of the war. A Japanese army transport carrying Indian prisoners of war of the British Indian Army together with Japanese troops, it was torpedoed on 26 January 1943 by the American submarine USS Wahoo north of Dutch New Guinea. Because the ship was not marked as a POW transport, the submarine had no way of knowing Allied prisoners were aboard. What followed made the incident especially grim: after the sinking, survivors in the water were fired upon in an episode that remains one of the most debated actions of the U.S. submarine campaign in the Pacific.

The Ship

Buyo Maru was a Japanese transport ship requisitioned for military service during World War II. By early 1943 it was operating as an Imperial Japanese Army transport in convoy service, moving troops and prisoners through the waters of Southeast Asia and New Guinea. Like other vessels later remembered as Hellships, it carried POWs without markings that would have identified them to Allied attackers.

The Voyage

Public sources agree that Buyo Maru departed Singapore in early January 1943 as part of a convoy bound toward the eastern Dutch East Indies/New Guinea area. The ship carried Japanese personnel together with Indian prisoners of war from the 2nd Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment. The exact POW total varies in public sources: one commonly cited figure is 269 Indian POWs, while Naval History and Heritage Command summarizes the ship as carrying 1,126 personnel aboard, including 491 Indian POWs. Because of that discrepancy, the page should treat the POW count cautiously unless and until a primary embarkation list is used.

The Attack or Loss

On 26 January 1943, USS Wahoo (SS-238) torpedoed Buyo Maru north of Dutch New Guinea. After the ship sank, Wahoo surfaced and fired on people in the water and in lifeboats. Later discussion centered on whether the submarine crew believed they were engaging only Japanese troops, whether they were taking fire in return, and the extent to which Allied POWs were among those targeted. This incident has remained controversial in naval history ever since, precisely because many of the survivors were not enemy combatants but Indian POWs being transported under guard.

Casualties and Survivors

The best-known public summary from Proceedings states that 1,126 men had embarked on Buyo Maru and that, between the torpedo attack, gunfire in the water, fighting among survivors, and exposure at sea, 195 Indian troops and 87 Japanese soldiers died. NHHC’s summary also gives the same combined death figures while noting that 491 of those aboard were Indian POWs. These totals underscore both the heavy loss of life and the continuing need to distinguish clearly between Japanese troops, Indian POWs, and overall shipboard totals in any database or memorial page. Survivors were later rescued by Japanese forces.

Legacy and Memorialization

Buyo Maru occupies a unique place in Hellship history. It was not one of the later large-scale American, British, or Australian POW disasters better known to the public, yet it is profoundly important because it highlights the danger faced by POWs transported in unmarked ships and because it involved Indian prisoners of war whose story is often overlooked in broader Pacific War narratives. The incident also remains significant in discussions of naval ethics, submarine warfare, and the laws of war at sea. For Hellships Memorial, Buyo Maru should be presented both as a POW transport tragedy and as a reminder that Indian Allied prisoners were also part of the Hellship story.

Sources

Naval History and Heritage Command, H-Gram 022-4: Loss of USS Wahoo
Proceedings (U.S. Naval Institute), “Mush Morton and the Buyo Maru Massacre”
Combinedfleet, IJA Transport Buyo Maru: Tabular Record of Movement

Rakuyō Maru
Shin’yō Maru
The Philippine Hellship Convoys
Hellships Casualty Database
Hellships Survivor Records
Hellships Research Center
Hellships Researcher Guide

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