The sinking of the Shinyo Maru

  • Published
  • By Daniel Phoenix
  • 19th Airlift Wing Historian
LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --  National POW/MIA Recognition Day remembers those who went before us. Sept. 7, 2010, was the 66th anniversary of the sinking of the Shinyo Maru, the darkest day in the history of the 19th Airlift Wing and its predecessors.

The 19th Bombardment Group, the predecessor in this great outfit, sacrificed as much as any American unit in World War II. Lets take a moment to remember those who were liberated and lost that September day, 66 years ago.

The nation, and the Army Air Corps, weren't prepared for the Japanese offensive at the start of World War II. The 19th, then a Bombardment Group equipped with new B-17 Flying Fortresses, had been sent to the Philippines as a deterrent to Japanese aggression. That deterrent failed, and the group was shattered in the initial Japanese attack.

Most of the 19th Bombardment Group's ground echelon couldn't be evacuated from the Philippines when their remaining Flying Fortresses moved south in late 1941. Most of the men fought as ground troops in the defense of Bataan. They were maintainers, quartermasters, cooks, medics and administrators; they learned to fight as infantry and artillery. The survivors surrendered under orders, and underwent the torture of the Bataan Death March, and the subsequent years of brutal captivity.

Further south, on the island of Mindanao, a detachment of the group maintained a hidden airstrip on a pineapple plantation. These Airmen laid down their arms at the same time the defenders of Bataan did, and became prisoners of war. They labored on work details, and fought disease, cruelty, and despair through the long years of the war.

In late August 1944, after more than two years of captivity on Mindanao, 750 prisoners of war were loaded on board an old freighter, one of the infamous "Hell Ships" for transport to Manila. 228 of those prisoners were from the 19th Bombardment Group.

The ship was not marked as carrying POWs. During its northward voyage, on Sept. 7, 1944, an American submarine sunk the Japanese freighter off Sindangan Point, Mindanao. The Shinyo Maru sank quickly and 668 prisoners of war died that day - 210 were members of the 19th. Eighteen members of the 19th and 64 others escaped the cargo hold and swam to shore, where they were sheltered by Filipino civilians and eventually evacuated.