Harugiku Maru

In 1944, Harugiku Maru became one of the lesser-known but still deeply tragic Hellship losses in Southeast Asian waters. A Japanese transport carrying Allied prisoners of war from Sumatra for labor on the Pekanbaru Railway, it left Belawan in late June 1944 as part of a small convoy. On 26 June 1944, in the Strait of Malacca, the unmarked ship was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Truculent, whose crew had no way of knowing that Allied POWs were aboard. The sinking killed a significant number of prisoners, while the survivors were taken onward to forced labor on the railway in Sumatra.

The Ship

Harugiku Maru was a Japanese transport ship used in wartime convoy service. Public historical references identify it as one of the POW transport vessels later remembered as Hellships. Like other ships in this system, it carried Allied prisoners without markings that would have identified their protected status to Allied naval forces. That failure to mark the ship exposed the prisoners aboard to the same danger faced by POWs on many other Japanese transports operating in contested waters.

The Voyage

According to the POW Research Network Japan, Harugiku Maru left Belawan, the port of Medan, Sumatra, on 26 June 1944 in convoy with a tanker and a freighter. The prisoners aboard were being transported from camps in Sumatra toward labor on the Pekanbaru Railway, one of the most brutal forced-labor projects in the Japanese-held Dutch East Indies. The voyage formed part of Japan’s broader POW labor transport system, moving already weakened prisoners under harsh and dangerous conditions to new work sites.

The Attack or Loss

Later on 26 June 1944, as the convoy entered the Strait of Malacca, Harugiku Maru was torpedoed and sunk by HMS Truculent. The ship was unmarked, and the attacking submarine had no way of knowing that Allied prisoners were among those on board. Imperial War Museums includes Harugiku Maru in its broader summary of POW transport ships sunk by Allied forces in East Asia, identifying it as one of the notable losses before the larger 1944 tragedies such as Rakuyō Maru and Kachidoki Maru.

Casualties and Survivors

Public sources differ on the exact casualty figure, and the page should acknowledge that clearly. COFEPOW lists Harugiku Maru among its Hellship casualty pages, confirming the ship as a recognized POW transport loss. The Imperial War Museums Maru Ship FEPOW Casualties memorial provides a broader casualty framework for FEPOW ship losses, while POW Research Network Japan confirms the date and identity of the ship. Because not all public summaries provide the same total in the excerpts available here, the safest wording is that Harugiku Maru suffered substantial POW casualties in the sinking, while surviving prisoners were taken onward to labor on the Pekanbaru Railway.

Legacy and Memorialization

Harugiku Maru is important in Hellship history because it links the maritime transport story directly to the Pekanbaru Railway, one of the harshest forced-labor projects in Southeast Asia. The ship’s loss reminds researchers that not all Hellship tragedies ended in total destruction at sea; in some cases, survivors were carried forward into further suffering on railways, in camps, or in industrial labor sites. Today, Harugiku Maru is remembered through FEPOW memorial work, casualty databases, and research into the movement of prisoners from Sumatra into the railway system.

Sources

POW Research Network Japan, Harugiku Maru.
Imperial War Museums, The Sinking of Prisoner of War Transport Ships in East Asia.
COFEPOW, Harugiku Maru casualty page.
Imperial War Museums, Maru Ship FEPOW Casualties memorial.

Tamahoko Maru
Jun’yō Maru
Suez Maru
Hellships Casualty Database
Hellships Survivor Records
Hellships Research Center
Hellships Researcher Guide