Nature
Oryoku Maru
- Good for
- history · reflection — not a casual dive recommendation
On 13 December 1944 the Oryoku Maru left Manila carrying about 1,620 Allied POWs, survivors of the Bataan Death March and Corregidor, packed below deck while roughly 1,900 Japanese personnel traveled above. Unmarked as a POW transport, she was attacked by US carrier aircraft near Subic Bay on 15 December and sank; about 270 prisoners died in the attack and its aftermath. One local dive shop reports SBMA has since closed the wreck to diving. The POWs are remembered at the Hell Ship Memorial on Waterfront Road.
Getting there
Sensitive mass-casualty/POW site. Treat with historical and ethical gravity; do not present as a routinely diveable wreck without further confirmation of current SBMA access rules.
Best for
- history
- reflection — not a casual dive recommendation