Life in the Holds

For many prisoners of war, the worst part of the Hellships experience was not the sinking of a ship, but the time spent alive inside the holds. Survivors consistently described these spaces as dark, overcrowded, airless, filthy, and unbearable. The Japanese transports used as Hellships were cargo vessels, troopships, and freighters, not ships prepared for the humane carriage of prisoners. Men were forced below decks in spaces never intended for hundreds of sick, weakened human beings. Packed tightly together with little water, almost no sanitation, and almost no ventilation, they endured conditions that turned the voyage itself into a form of torment. The term “Hellships” came from survivors, and nowhere was that reality felt more intensely than in the holds below deck.

Darkness, Heat, and Lack of Air

One of the most common features of survivor testimony is the near-total darkness inside the holds. Prisoners described hatch covers shut overhead, little or no artificial light, and so little air that men struggled to breathe. The deeper and more crowded the compartment, the worse conditions became. In tropical waters, the heat below decks could become suffocating. Men fainted, panicked, or fought to get closer to the limited air near a hatch. Public historical summaries of Oryoku Maru and other Hellships describe the holds as dangerously overcrowded, with poor ventilation and conditions so severe that some men died before a ship was ever attacked.

Extreme Overcrowding

Prisoners were often packed so tightly that they could not lie down properly and sometimes could barely sit. On some voyages, men were pressed shoulder to shoulder or forced to stand for long periods. Survivor accounts and archival summaries describe conditions in which the only movement possible was over or against the bodies of other prisoners. This overcrowding was not simply uncomfortable; it increased heat, reduced airflow, spread disease, and made it almost impossible to care for the sick or wounded. It also meant that when a ship was hit, many prisoners could not reach ladders, hatches, or openings in time to escape.

Thirst and Starvation

Water was one of the greatest agonies of the Hellships. Many transports provided only tiny amounts of drinking water, often far less than what was needed to survive the heat and confinement. Food was also grossly inadequate. Prisoners who had already suffered from malnutrition in camps boarded these ships in a weakened condition, and the voyage pushed many beyond endurance. Historical accounts of Hellship transport note that the holds often became places of rapid physical collapse, where dehydration, hunger, and exhaustion turned weak men into dying men within a matter of days.

Filth and Sanitation

Sanitation in the holds was usually primitive or nonexistent. Buckets might be provided, but in extreme overcrowding they quickly overflowed or became inaccessible. Prisoners suffering from dysentery, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and wounds had no proper way to isolate themselves or clean their surroundings. Survivor descriptions repeatedly mention excrement, urine, vomit, and the stench of unwashed bodies building up in the darkness. In some cases, the holds had previously been used for cargo, livestock, or other transport and had not been properly cleaned before the prisoners were loaded. These conditions accelerated disease and stripped the men of even the most basic dignity.

Disease and Physical Breakdown

The holds concentrated sickness. Men already weakened by malaria, beriberi, dysentery, wounds, malnutrition, or tropical ulcers were packed together where disease spread easily and treatment was minimal or absent. In that environment, even minor medical problems could become fatal. Heat exhaustion, dehydration, and infection quickly worsened. Some prisoners lost consciousness. Others became delirious. Historical summaries of Hellship conditions consistently stress that the voyage did not merely transport already weakened men; it actively intensified the effects of captivity and drove many closer to death.

Fear, Panic, and Psychological Trauma

Life in the holds was not only a physical ordeal but also a psychological one. Men were trapped below decks with little sense of time, limited knowledge of where they were going, and no assurance that they would survive the journey. Some feared suffocation more than bombing or torpedoes. Others described the terror of hearing explosions overhead, feeling the ship shudder, or realizing that water was entering the hold while there was no clear path to escape. When a ship came under attack, the crowded darkness could turn instantly into panic. The holds were often death traps because the very conditions that had already weakened the prisoners also prevented them from escaping quickly.

The Holds as the Heart of the Hellships Experience

To understand the Hellships, it is not enough to know that they were torpedoed or bombed. The ordeal began long before any attack. The holds were where the suffering accumulated: thirst, heat, dysentery, darkness, crowding, fear, and the slow collapse of bodies already damaged by years of captivity. Even on voyages that did not end in sinking, the holds themselves could be places of death. For many survivors, that was why the ships deserved the name “Hellships.” The horror was not only in how some voyages ended, but in how men were forced to live inside them while the voyage lasted.

Sources

U.S. National Archives, “American POWs on Japanese Ships Take a Voyage into Hell”.
Naval History and Heritage Command, “The Japanese ‘Hell Ships’ of World War II”.
BYU Religious Studies Center, “The Special Hell of the Oryoku Maru”.
DPAA, The Enoura Maru Project / Hellship losses overview.
Imperial War Museums, “The Sinking of Prisoner of War Transport Ships in East Asia”.

What Happened After a Sinking
Why the Hellships Were Unmarked
The Hellships and Forced Labor
Romusha and the Hellships
The Oryoku–Enoura–Brazil Maru Transport Chain
Hellships Research Center
Hellships Researcher Guide