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The Nitimei Maru 38 and the quest for their final memorial place.

This is the story of the Nitimei Maru, a Japanese transport ship in World War II. Other spellings of the ship are Nishimei, Nichimei, Nitimu.

This ship was one of the many so called 'hell-ships' because of the unbearable conditions on these ships and abusive treatments by their guards of the allied POW's and slave laborers of the several South East Asian countries, occupied by Japan.

They were transported to the several strategic infrastructure projects of the "Sons of the Rising Sun" in violation of the Geneva Convention.

All these ships had no markings, indicating that they were transporting POW's. The usual markings would be a red cross on its sides or decks.

Consequently they became targets of Allied bombers and submarines, patrolling the sea lanes of Southeast Asia.

On January 15, 1943, the Nitimei Maru was sunk by Allied B24's, based in India, in the Gulf of Martaban by Moulmein, Burma.

The ship was transporting primarily over thousands Dutch POW's, Indonesian slave laborers and Japanese engineers for the several Japanese strategic projects in Burma and Siam.

Miraculously the ship did not loose too many POW's because the ship was hit at the stern where most of the Japanese were. But 38 Dutch POW's lost their lives.

A detailed account of the voyage of this hell ship can be read at the different sections of this site, including witness accounts of survivors and why the POW losses were so low.

The purpose of this website is to convince the people involved with the Burma Railroad monument to add their names on a similar and next to their plaque depicting the sinking ship.

Their plaque as shown on the next photo is significantly placed at the existing Memorial Wall of the Burma-Siam Railroad Monument.

We are suggesting a separate but similar plaque since the Wall has no room for extensions and our 38 names will not interfere with the grouping of the other victim's names which are placed according to where they died in the several work camps.

This monument is located on the grounds of the Dutch Colonial Army Museum Bronbeek in the city of Arnhem, Netherlands.

We are going to finance the manufacture and placement of our plaque.

Unfortunately we had no success so far. We assume that the reason for the denial of our request lays in their Mission Statement which says:

Op deze dag worden alle slachtoffers herdacht die het leven lieten bij de aanleg van de Birma-Siam en de Pakan Baroe spoorweg. De Stichting streeft ernaar meer bekendheid te geven aan deze donkere periode in de geschiedenis waarin Nederlandse onderdanen, samen met geallieerden en Indonesische dwangarbeiders, onder mensonterende omstandigheden hebben geleden onder het Japanse juk.

Which translated says:

On this day (the yearly memorial day) we remember ALL the victims who lost their lives at the construction of the Burma-Siam and the Pakan Baroe railroad. The foundation is striving to get more awareness for these dark periods in history in which Dutch together with allied POW's and Indonesian slave laborers have suffered under inhumane circumstances under the Japanese subjugation.

Which means to us, since they did not die at the construction sites but on their way to it, their sacrifice is not worth to be memorialized.

It is like saying to the surviving family members of the Jews who died on transports to the Nazi camps of Bergen Belsen, Sobibor, Auschwitz etc that their ultimate sacrifices are not worth to be honored at the Holocaust monuments at these camps.

If you feel you can help in our efforts, you can send emails to the following address:

Secretary

C/O Mrs B.R. Voorneman

E-mail: shbss@kpnmail.nl

You can use your own words in your email but be short and to the point, professional and polite. You can refer to this site when offering your help. Please note that the costs of the extra plaque will be our responsibility.

Here is the link to their website which is in Dutch only http://www.shbss.nl/

Here follows the names of the 38 POW victims.

Source: Oorlogs Graven Stichting.