Crew from the merchant ship Hauraki

A group portrait showing 17 former crew members from the New Zealand cargo vessel MV Hauraki, with 11 other prisoners of war, at their camp at Ohasi, northern Japan, on 28 August 1945, while they were awaiting repatriation following Japan's surrender. The Hauraki and all on board – 52 Union SS Co officers and crewmen, three naval DEMS gunners and eight passengers – had been captured by the Japanese armed merchant cruisers Aikoku Maru and Hokoku Maru in the Indian Ocean on 12 July 1942. The majority of the captives were imprisoned in Singapore, but 23 of them, mostly engine-room staff, were taken to Japan. The ship was later pressed into Japanese service, before being sunk by US bombers in 1944.

All of those listed here are Hauraki crew members unless stated otherwise.

Left to right: back row: W.P. (Bill) Hall, 3rd engineer; W. Speekbreenk (Dutch engineer); James D. Innes, 7th engineer; V. Bladern (Dutch engineer); C.T. Hurley, 4th engineer; D.K. Scott, 11th engineer; D. McCalum, ship's carpenter; A. Alexander, greaser; E. Jacobsen, ship's cook; and F. Chamberlain (assistant marine superintendent, Straits Steamship Company, Singapore). Middle row: D. Taylor, L.H. Russel, and McGee (all American POWs); W.C. Falconer, chief engineer; N. Hedlund, electrician; A.W. Creese, captain; J.R. Gable, 10th engineer; A. Meridith, 8th engineer; and Weir (American POW). Front row: E. McReady, steward; D. Butler, W. Fairey, and S. Hewitt (all American POWs); R.L.B. Thomson, 2nd Engineer; A. Lindsay, wireless operator; Galloway (American POW); J. Harland, greaser; and R. Bell, assistant cook. 

Two Hauraki crewmen, W.E. Porteous, 6th engineer, and G.N. Mutton, 9th engineer, were in hospital when this photograph was taken, and four others had died during their captivity in Japan – see the Roll of Honour. (Original print housed in the AWM Archive Store) (Donor J. Innes)