Help Preserve Their Stories

Your gift ensures that the Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees who suffered aboard the Hellships are never forgotten.

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Hellships Memorial Foundation is a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

U.S. deductibility depends on donor circumstances and applicable limits..

$50 — Friend of the Foundation Preserving and organizing a prisoner’s story, photograph, or source record for future research . Friend of the Foundation Certificate. Personal thank-you email and the option to be listed in an annual donor roll.

$100 — Advocate Checking records and sharing documented Hellship histories with families and the public. Advocate Certificate, plus a quarterly email update on research and memorial work.

$250 — Research Sponsor Archival research, source comparison, and development of the Kelso Research Center’s records. Research Sponsor Certificate, plus acknowledgment in an annual research supporters list and an invitation to an online research briefing.

$1,000 — Memorial Benefactor Memorial preservation, historical interpretation, and remembrance activities. Research Memorial Benefactor Certificate, plus acknowledgment in a printed ceremony program when one is produced and a personal annual project update.

$5,000 — Legacy Partner Sustained work across research, the digital archive, maritime investigation, and memorial preservation. Legacy Partner Certificate, plus a dedicated conversation with the Foundation director and prominent acknowledgment on a Foundation supporters page or annual report.

Recognition is optional. Donors may give anonymously or make a gift in honor or memory of a person or Hellship. Donations support the Foundation’s overall mission unless a specific project designation is offered and accepted by the Foundation. Recognition does not confer naming rights to a memorial, research finding, or wreck site.

Donate online securely through our encrypted payment platform using a credit card or other supported payment methods. Your contribution directly supports the preservation of the Hellships Memorial and the Foundation’s ongoing historical research, education, and remembrance programs.

Bank Transfer
For donors who prefer to make a direct bank transfer, view our bank transfer instructions you may support the Hellships Memorial Foundation by transferring your donation directly to the Foundation’s business account using the banking information provided by sending an email to info@hellshipsmemorial.org.

Donations by Check

Checks may be made payable to Hellships Memorial Foundation and mailed to:

Hellships Memorial Foundation
1621 Central Avenue #57487
Cheyenne, WY 82001
USA

YOUR SUPPORT AT WORK

Historical Research

Archival investigation and documentation of Hellship voyages and victims. Our researchers examine military records, war diaries, survivor accounts, photographs, and other primary sources to reconstruct what happened and identify the people involved. This work helps uncover new information and preserve it for descendants, researchers, and future generations.

Maritime Archaeology

Locating and documenting historically significant wreck sites. Working with maritime specialists and appropriate authorities, we use historical evidence and modern survey technology to investigate potential Hellship wreck locations. Our goal is to document these sites respectfully and strengthen the historical record surrounding their loss.

Digital Archive

Preserving casualty records, survivor accounts, and historical documents for future generations. We are building a searchable collection that brings together records, photographs, personal stories, and research that might otherwise remain scattered or be lost. Making these materials accessible helps families, historians, educators, and researchers continue the work of remembrance.

Memorial Preservation

Maintaining and expanding places of remembrance. We support the preservation of existing memorials while developing new opportunities to honor those who suffered and died aboard the Hellships. These places provide families and future generations with a lasting connection to the people and events behind this history.

Current Projects

The Hellships Memorial Foundation is actively pursuing research, preservation, and remembrance projects that connect historical records with the people, places, and events they document. Your support helps turn research into lasting results.

Shinyo Maru Project

Research • Maritime Investigation • Remembrance

The Foundation is conducting an ongoing historical and maritime investigation of the Shinyo Maru, sunk off the coast of Mindanao on September 7, 1944. Our research brings together wartime records, survivor accounts, submarine patrol reports, local testimony, historical charts, and modern geographic data to refine the location of the wreck and document the events surrounding its loss.

Working with Philippine institutions, local communities, historians, and maritime specialists, the project is developing a responsible plan for future deep-water investigation of the site. The ultimate objective is not simply to locate a shipwreck, but to strengthen the historical record, honor those who died, and preserve the extraordinary story of the survivors and the Filipino civilians who came to their aid.

Kelso Research Center

Research • Documentation • Digital Preservation

The Kelso Research Center is being developed as a central resource for the study of the Japanese POW transport system and the thousands of Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees who endured these voyages.

The Foundation is assembling casualty records, POW rosters, transport histories, archival documents, photographs, survivor accounts, maps, and other primary-source materials. By connecting individual prisoners with ships, camps, transport events, sinkings, and surviving records, we are working to reconstruct individual POW journeys and make this history more accessible to descendants, historians, around the world.

Hellships Memorial

Preservation • Remembrance • Education

Partner With Us on the Shinyo Maru Project: Click here to Download the 2-page PDF

The Hellships Memorial at Subic Bay provides a permanent place of remembrance for the Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees who suffered and died aboard the Hellships. The Foundation works to preserve the Memorial, maintain its historical integrity, and ensure that the people represented there continue to be remembered. Our work extends beyond the physical monument through commemorative ceremonies, educational programs, historical interpretation, descendant engagement, and the development of additional memorial initiatives.

By connecting remembrance with continuing research and education, we seek to ensure that the history represented by the Memorial is passed from one generation to the next.

The Hellships Memorial Foundation recently concluded a major research and maritime investigation into the loss of the Japanese transport Hōfuku Maru, one of the deadliest Hellship disasters of World War II.

On September 21, 1944, Hōfuku Maru was attacked and sunk off the coast of Zambales, Philippines, while carrying Allied prisoners of war. Approximately 1,200 British and Dutch POWs were lost, making the sinking one of the greatest single losses of Allied POW lives aboard a Hellship.

For decades, questions remained about the precise location of the vessel. The Foundation undertook a multidisciplinary investigation combining Japanese wartime records, Allied operational reports, convoy information, survivor accounts, historical charts, geographic analysis, and modern maritime survey data.

Field investigations off the Zambales coast incorporated side-scan sonar and other survey techniques to examine the search area and document a wreck-site anomaly at approximately 60 meters depth. The maritime evidence was then compared with the historical record, including Japanese convoy documentation and Allied reports describing the location and circumstances of the September 21 attack.

The convergence of independent historical and maritime evidence enabled the Foundation's research team to identify the wreck site as the Hōfuku Maru with a high degree of confidence.

Recently Concluded Projects

Hōfuku Maru

Historical Research • Maritime Investigation • Identification

The findings were subsequently presented to representatives of the governments and organizations whose nationals are associated with the tragedy, providing a documented foundation for further official consideration, remembrance, and protection of the site.

More Than Finding a Shipwreck

The purpose of the project was never simply to locate a vessel on the seabed.

The Hōfuku Maru represents the final resting place of hundreds of men whose families often received little more than a wartime notification that their loved one had died or was missing. Establishing where the ship lies reconnects those individuals with a physical place and adds an important piece to the historical record of their final journey.

The project demonstrates what the Hellships Memorial Foundation seeks to accomplish: combine rigorous historical research with modern technology to answer questions that have remained unresolved for generations.

Research can lead to discovery. Discovery can lead to remembrance. And remembrance ensures that they are no longer forgotten.

WHY YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS

During World War II, thousands of prisoners of war were transported across the Pacific under brutal conditions aboard vessels now known as the Hellships.

Many never reached their destination. Thousands perished—often without record, recognition, or a place of remembrance.

Today, their stories are still being uncovered.

Hellships Memorial Foundation is recognized as a U.S. 501(c)(3) organization. Contributions may be deductible for U.S. federal income tax purposes to the extent allowed by law. Please consult your tax adviser about your circumstances., U.S. deductibility depends on donor circumstances and applicable limits. Your donation fuels ongoing research, historical documentation, memorial preservation, and educational outreach—bringing truth, recognition, and dignity to those who were lost. By giving today, you are not only honoring the past, but helping build a lasting legacy for future generations.