USS Pampanito
Three days after an attack, the crew came back and found prisoners from their own side in the water.
Listen to this place’s story in Peplos.
How the story begins
The torpedoes this submarine fired in the South China Sea hit a ship carrying prisoners from her own side, and her crew did not know it. A Japanese convoy was taking about two thousand two hundred British and Australian prisoners of war to Japan. On the twelfth of September 1944 American submarines attacked, and two prison ships went down. Japanese ships picked up their own people first.
The rest is in the app. Peplos plays the full story when you reach the place. You can also listen ahead of time.
Visiting
Pier 45, Fisherman's Wharf. A floating museum with paid entry. Check hours and tickets with the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association before you go.
Sources
- Australian War Memorial: 70th anniversary of the sinking of the Rakuyo Maru
- National Park Service: USS Pampanito
- Military Historical Society of Australia (SA): the rescue of Australian prisoners of war
- 2/4th Machine Gun Battalion Association: the third war patrol
- Wikipedia: USS Pampanito
- Carl Nolte, Yes, she's a Fisherman's Wharf tourist (San Francisco Chronicle, 2019)
- Landon Davis's account of the Pampanito rescue (Far Eastern Heroes)
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