John Henry Hick
John Henry Hick was a British Army medic from Wakefield whose wartime journey took him from Singapore to Changi, from the hell ship Fukkai Maru to the prisoner-of-war camp at Mukden in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. His story is one of endurance, service, and survival under some of the harshest conditions experienced by Allied prisoners in the Far East.
Born in 1915 at Ellis Laithe Farm near Hemsworth in West Yorkshire, John was the second eldest of twelve children born to Harry and Ruth Hick. The family later settled in Walton, on the outskirts of Wakefield. By the time of the 1939 Register, John was working as a motor car repairer. Less than a year later, after the outbreak of war, he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was 25 years old.
John kept a diary that recorded his departure from Liverpool on 2 August 1940. His route took him first to South Africa, then on to India, where he spent time in Bangalore, before he was posted to Malaya and Singapore. On 15 February 1942, when Singapore fell to the Japanese army, he was taken prisoner of war. Within days he was in Changi, where many wounded and sick prisoners endured overcrowding, hunger, and a severe shortage of medicines. After around six months, John was transferred through Formosa and then transported aboard the hell ship Fukkai Maru. Historical records show that prisoners from Singapore were taken to Korea and then onward by train to Mukden, arriving in November 1942.
Mukden and the POW System
Mukden, also known as Hoten or Fengtian and now part of Shenyang, became one of the main camps for Allied prisoners held in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. The British and Australian prisoners sent there from Singapore joined a much larger Allied population that included American prisoners transferred from the Philippines. Conditions were harsh: food was poor, sanitation inadequate, winters bitterly cold, and medical care limited. Many men arrived already weakened by earlier captivity and by the sea journey north.
The route to Mukden formed part of the wider POW system that moved captives across Asia for labour and confinement. For men like John, captivity did not end with Singapore. It continued through Changi, Formosa, Korea and, finally, Manchuria. Each stage brought further uncertainty, deprivation, and danger. By the time many prisoners reached Mukden, they had already survived disease, beatings, exhausting transport, and severe malnutrition.
The voyage aboard Fukkai Maru was part of a transport operation that carried prisoners captured in Malaya and Singapore north in 1942. Accounts of these journeys describe overcrowding, poor conditions, and the fear that accompanied transport on the Japanese “hell ships”, where prisoners were packed into cargo vessels with little protection, food, or sanitation.
Surviving records indicate that prisoners travelled from Singapore via Takao in Formosa to Pusan in Korea before being moved onward by rail to Mukden. Such records help place John’s own journey within the known movements of British and Commonwealth POWs during this period.
Like other Japanese POW camps across Asia, Mukden was shaped by violence, forced labour, hunger, and neglect. Prisoners struggled with disease, weakness, inadequate clothing, and routine punishment. For many, survival depended not only on endurance but also on the support of fellow prisoners and the small acts of care that men could still offer one another in extreme conditions.
Later testimony and camp histories underline the severity of what prisoners endured there. For John Henry Hick, Mukden was not simply another location in wartime service; it was the place where captivity became a prolonged test of physical and mental survival.
John Hick at Mukden
John rarely spoke about his years as a prisoner of war. Much of what the family later understood came through surviving diaries and artefacts, as well as the testimony of Arthur Christie, a fellow prisoner. Christie confirmed that the extensive scarring on John’s body had been caused by severe beatings inflicted during captivity. Family recollections also indicate that John worked in the camp hospital, caring for prisoners suffering from illnesses including beri-beri. In that setting, his role as a medic continued even in captivity, offering help to others while he himself remained at risk. Following John’s death in 1992, the family discovered letters, diaries, photographs, and military items that he had kept despite the ordeal he had endured.
One of the surviving artefacts is a set of dog tags, including a tag written in Japanese that records permission for John to sleep during the day because he worked at night in the hospital. The object offers a rare and immediate connection to his daily life in camp: even as a prisoner, he was still carrying out medical duties in exhausting and dangerous circumstances.
Mukden and the Shadow of Unit 731
Mukden has become especially significant in post-war memory because of its association with allegations of medical experimentation and its wider proximity to the history of Unit 731, the Japanese military organisation responsible for biological warfare research and human experimentation in occupied Manchuria. Historical accounts of the Hoten camp refer to medical abuse, and British official records later documented claims by former prisoners relating to Unit 731 and Mukden. At the same time, the precise details of individual prisoners’ experiences are often difficult to verify in full. For that reason, it is most accurate to say that John’s story sits within a deeply disturbing historical context in which former POWs raised serious questions about medical experimentation connected to Mukden.
Further viewing
A recent two-part documentary may also be of interest to readers exploring this history. Inside Unit 731: Japan’s Secret Human Experiments, directed by Tom St John Gray for CNA, was released in June 2026 and examines the wider history of Unit 731 through survivor testimony, declassified records, and international reporting.
Episode 1, A Time of Monsters, introduces the broader story, while Episode 2, The Long Shadow, focuses more directly on POW testing and includes an interview with Arthur Christie’s daughter. Readers who would like to explore the subject further can watch both episodes online. Two shorter films to finish the series are: WW2 Germ Lab Cover-Up In Occupied Singapore: Oka 9420 | Inside Unit 731 – Extra and The Indonesian Doctor Framed For Japan’s WW2 Vaccine Massacre | Inside Unit 731 – Extra
When the camp was liberated in 1945, John survived and was sent to Canada to recover before returning home to Wakefield. In later life he worked as a school caretaker and found quiet pleasure in gardening, growing sweet peas and vegetables. He married Mabel, but like many former prisoners he appears to have carried the weight of wartime suffering for the rest of his life. Those who knew him remembered him as a quiet and unassuming man, yet the surviving evidence of his captivity reveals remarkable resilience, discipline, and compassion in the face of brutality.
The artefacts John left behind after his death in 1992 are now held by the Museum of Military Medicine, Aldershot. Together, these objects preserve not only the record of one man’s war, but also the memory of the many prisoners whose suffering at Mukden remained largely unspoken for decades.
References
- Prisoners of War of the Japanese 1942 – 1945 https://pows-of-japan.net/articles.htm
- Wikipedia: Unit 731 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
- WLLIAMS, Peter and WALLACE, David. Unit 731, Japans Secret Biological Warfare in WW2. ISBN-10, 0029353017.
- CHRISTIE, Arthur. Mission Scapula: Special Operations in the Far East. Panda Press (Stone) Limited, 2004.
- Inside Unit 731: Japan’s Secret Human Experiments, directed by Tom St John Gray for CNA. Episode 1, A Time of Monsters and Episode 2, The Long Shadow. 2026.
(c) Rooted Lines Genealogy 2026