Subic Bay Attack
War From the Sky
In December 1944 the war in the Pacific had reached the Philippines. American naval and air forces were operating throughout the region as part of the campaign to liberate the islands from Japanese occupation. Japanese ships moving through Philippine waters had become prime targets for Allied aircraft and submarines.
When American pilots approached the waters around Subic Bay, they saw what appeared to be enemy transport vessels—legitimate military targets in a war where Japanese shipping was critical to sustaining the empire’s forces.
What they could not see from the air were the hundreds of Allied prisoners of war trapped inside the cargo holds.
The Attack on Oryoku Maru
After leaving Manila Bay, the damaged Hellship Oryoku Maru attempted to reach safety along the coast near Subic Bay. The ship had already been struck during earlier attacks and was badly damaged.
On 15 December 1944, American aircraft returned and attacked the vessel again.
Bombs and machine-gun fire struck the ship and surrounding vessels. The attacks caused further destruction and panic among the prisoners who remained aboard. Many prisoners managed to escape through broken hatch covers or damaged sections of the ship, climbing onto the deck or jumping into the water.
The Japanese guards struggled to maintain control as the ship burned and began to sink.
Prisoners in the Water
As the attacks continued, prisoners leapt into the sea in desperate attempts to escape the burning vessel. Some swam toward the shore several hundred yards away. Others clung to floating debris or lifeboats.
For the American pilots overhead, the situation was impossible to recognize. From their altitude they could see only Japanese ships under attack. The presence of prisoners aboard the transports was unknown to them.
Below, the prisoners fought simply to stay alive.
Some drowned in the water. Others were killed during the strafing attacks. Many managed to reach the shoreline near Subic Bay, exhausted and wounded.
Chaos on the Shore
Those prisoners who survived the sinking gathered along the beaches under the watch of Japanese guards. Many had lost friends and comrades during the bombing and the frantic escape from the ship.
The survivors were in terrible condition. After days in the suffocating cargo holds of Oryoku Maru, they were dehydrated, hungry, and physically weakened. Some were wounded by shrapnel or machine-gun fire.
Yet even after the disaster at sea, the prisoners were not free.
Japanese forces quickly regrouped and rounded up the survivors along the shoreline. They were marched away from the beach and held under guard while arrangements were made to continue transporting them north.
A Journey Not Yet Over
For the prisoners who had endured the Death March, the years of captivity at Cabanatuan, and the horror of the voyage aboard Oryoku Maru, the events at Subic Bay might have seemed like the end of the ordeal.
But the Japanese still intended to move the prisoners to labor camps outside the Philippines.
Within days the survivors were loaded onto trains and trucks and transported north toward another port.
There they would be forced aboard another Japanese transport ship.
Its name was Enoura Maru.
Mercer’s Memory
Standing on the beach at Subic Bay, Sgt. William Mercer watched the smoke rising from the wreck of Oryoku Maru. Around him lay survivors who had escaped the ship, many injured and barely able to stand.
For a brief moment they had believed the attack might mean rescue.
Instead, the guards soon drove them away from the shore.
Their Hellship journey was not finished.