What flags was she flying?

[Julianne]

The lore in our family was that the Montevideo Maru was not flying the appropriate flags indicating POWs and/or Red Cross and that's why the USS Sturgeon felt at liberty to fire off the torpedoes.

Does anyone know any more about this?

[josslarkins]

my grandmother always said the same thing - that she was not marked as a POW ship - however I've never seen anything come out in all the research that has been done to say whether this was true or if it's just something of "family folk law"
I too would love an answer to this question

[Julianne]

I'm pretty sure this was mentioned in the documentary on the History channel tonight (11th November 2009) and the comment was that the ships were indeed unmarked. The Americans had no idea that they were POW ships. The Montevideo Maru was torpedoed at night, so even if the correct flags were flying, they may not have been visible to the submarine crew anyway.

[josslarkins]

unfortunately i missed the documentary - i think my sister is trying to get a copy for me

[lynne1203]

I haven't heard about the flags flown on that occasion. I remember my mother telling me told me that the Japanese were known for using hospital ships for transporting their troops. My uncle was one of the prisoners of war on board.

[tassiedevil]

The story that was handed down to me from my late mother was that it was flying a hospital ship flag, and was sunk by the Japanes towards the end of the war. It wasn't until then that the family was informed that my uncle, Keith Russell, was lost at sea, presumed dead. Imagine not only my shock but sadness to recently discover, that he was on a POW ship which was torpedoed and sunk by one of our allies with so many lives lost