Ofuna POW Camp Site

The Ōfuna Prisoner-of-War Camp (大船捕虜収容所), officially designated the "Yokosuka Naval Guard Unit Ueki Detachment" (横須賀海軍警備隊植木分遣隊), was a covert Imperial Japanese Navy interrogation facility established on April 6, 1942, at Ueki, Ōfuna-chō, Kamakura-gun (present-day Kamakura City), Kanagawa Prefecture. The camp was situated on the grounds adjacent to Ryūhō-ji (龍宝寺), a Sōtō Zen temple that also occupied the former site of the Sengoku-era Tamanawa Castle.

Unlike conventional prisoner-of-war camps administered by the Imperial Japanese Army, Ōfuna was operated directly by the Imperial Japanese Navy under the Yokosuka Naval District. Its primary mission was intelligence extraction: interrogating captured Allied aviators, submarine crews, and other personnel who possessed valuable tactical and technical knowledge about Allied operations, weapons systems, and military plans.

The camp was deliberately kept secret. It was never registered with the International Red Cross, and prisoners' names were not disclosed to any neutral monitoring body — a direct violation of the 1929 Geneva Convention. Even local residents were largely unaware of the facility's true purpose. The installation consisted of three interconnected single-story buildings arranged around a central yard, enclosed by an eight-foot wooden fence. The area had previously served as an elementary school.

Conditions at Ōfuna were deliberately harsh to break prisoners psychologically and compel cooperation during interrogation. Inmates were confined to individual cells and subjected to strict silence rules — forbidden from speaking to one another or even talking in their sleep. Rations were kept at starvation levels, reportedly around 500 calories per day. Beatings with wooden clubs were commonplace: refusing to answer questions, providing false information, or showing perceived disrespect to interrogators resulted in severe physical punishment. Guards frequently struck prisoners at random. The camp earned the grim nickname "Torture Farm" among its inmates.

Despite these brutal conditions, the mortality rate at Ōfuna was comparatively low: of the estimated 500 to 1,000 Allied prisoners who passed through the facility during the war, six died in captivity. This was likely because the Navy valued prisoners alive for continued intelligence exploitation.

Notable prisoners included Louis Zamperini, the Olympic distance runner and B-24 bombardier whose harrowing story was told in the book and film "Unbroken"; Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, the legendary Marine Corps fighter ace and Medal of Honor recipient who commanded the famous "Black Sheep" Squadron (VMF-214); and Richard O'Kane, commander of USS Tang (SS-306), the most successful American submarine of World War II, who was captured after his own torpedo circled back and sank his vessel. The surviving crews of submarines USS Tang, USS Perch (SS-176), and USS Sculpin (SS-191) were also held here, along with numerous American and British aviators.

Following Japan's surrender, the remaining 126 American and 9 British prisoners were liberated on 21 August 1945 by Lt. Dolder's Rescue Team #56. In postwar war crimes trials, 30 camp personnel were prosecuted for mistreatment; three were initially sentenced to death by hanging, later commuted. Commander Yokura Sashizo, the camp commandant, received a 25-year sentence.

Today, the camp site has been entirely redeveloped into a residential neighborhood. Almost no physical trace remains — only fragments of a watchtower foundation preserved in a private garden (as of 2007). Ryūhō-ji temple maintains a sotoba (wooden memorial marker) and a small monument in its cemetery in memory of the six prisoners who died, and conducts annual memorial services during the Obon period.