Japanese hospital ships were marked according to international regulations- white hull and superstructure, green band round hull, red crosses on hull and funnel(s), lit at night etc (which does not mean that the Japanese did not use/misuse these ships for more warlike purposes. The Japanese had little regard for international law regarding hospital ships, witness their illegal seizure of the Dutch hospital ship "Op ten Noort" in the Java Sea, and later commandeering her for their own purposes as the hospital ship "Hikawa Maru No.2"). Ships carrying POWs/Asian slave labourers, however, were not marked as such in any way at all; the Japanese simply appointed an available vessel as POW carrier and crammed the unfortunates in the holds. I certainly have never heard of any hellship such as "Kachidoki Maru", "Rakuyo Maru" or "Junyo Maru" receiving any kind of special paint/markings. To be fair, though, the "Laconia", sunk in the Atlantic by a U-Boot while carring Italian POWs, wasn't specially marked either as far as I know.
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