The Sinking of the Junyo Maru one of the greatest WW2 disasters

I would like to share this with you. One of my ancestors was among the Dutch victims.

May they all rest in peace.

The Junyo Maru - 5620 Dutch, English, Australian and American POWs and Javanese slave labourers died when this Japanese cargo boat was torpedoed, on 18 September 1944 off the south west coast of Sumatra, by a British submarine.

1382 Dutch, 56, British ,8 US and 3 Australian POWs and about 4000 Javanese slave labourers perished


http://members.iinet.net.au/~vanderkp/junyopg8.html

 

Condolances.....Bit more about the submarine here....Tragic.

http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3524.html

 

It sure is sad. I only found out about this today while doing some genealogy research.

 

I also offer my condolences Skipper and to all others who lost loved ones in this terrible disaster. What a tragic story. I can't even imagine how the submariners felt when they found out the awful news.

 

No need for compassion lads, as you may understand , I wasn't even aware of it until 24 hours ago and the brave man was a distant relative, I was born decades after he made the ultimate sacrifice. It's just a way to pay respect and above all a modest way to make sure this story wo'nt be forgotten. It's about as big as the Wilhelm Gustloff or the Lancastria, but this loss is almost totally forgotten. Is it because 4000 of the casualties were anonymous Japanese slave workers?
Also I find the story most interesting.

 

Likely it is because the "Hell ships" of Japan is a subject, that even today, few are comfortable talking about. A.) It brings up a rather sore subject with our Japanese allies, and B.) That through Ultra intercepts, the Allies knew what convoys were carrying POWs - just not on board which ships, thus they directed their submarines to attack the convoys anyway.

 

An excellent website on those maritime disasters in World War II - those "remembered" and "forgotten."
http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/index.html
Check out the "Maritime Disasters of WWII" and the "More Maritime Disasters of WWII" drop-down boxes.

 

I confirm, survivors talk about people being exhausted and having malaria. Besides the Japanese survivors had little flags in their safety kits which they waved , so the rescuers would save them before the others. It must be said that they saved some westerners too.