Mush Morton and the crew of the Wahoo, War Criminals?
by David L. Johnston
On 26 January 1943 the submarine USS Wahoo (SS-238), under the command of the indomitable Lt. Commander Dudley W. “Mush†Morton, engaged in a running gun and torpedo battle with a Japanese convoy consisting of four ships off the northern coast of New Guinea. It would later prove to be a seminal moment in the history of the famous Morton and his Wahoo, forever cementing their combined reputation as ace ship hunters. At a time when the war news was almost universally bad, and when the submarine force was struggling to hit its stride against the Japanese, Morton and the fighting Wahoo provided a much needed shot in the arm and morale boost to our Navy and country. Unfortunately, it also would prove to be one of the most controversial acts committed by one of our submarines during the war, and would later result in whispered back room (and sometimes open) charges of racism, murder, and official cover-up.
Just before noon on the 26th, Morton engaged the Buyo Maru, one of the four ships in the convoy. She was a freighter chartered by the Japanese government to carry troops and materiel to war zones in and around New Guinea. Just a few miles off shore, Morton’s initial torpedo attack sank the ship, but not before over 1,000 troops made it into the water in 20 wooden lifeboats. Her batteries nearly depleted from many hours of submerged action, Morton surfaced the Wahoo amid the boats and assessed the situation. Realizing that the boats were within easy range of Japanese held territory, and that the majority of the men in the boats would survive and make it back to Japanese control, Morton made the command decision to finish the Wahoo’s mission and destroy the boats.
https://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/usswahoo.aspx
