Record Masterclass
Phil Tomaselli explains how to use this valuable resource 75 years after VJ Day was celebrated
Phil Tomaselli shares expert advice on index cards for prisoners of war held by Japan in the Second World War
As soon as Japan announced its surrender on 15 August 1945, efforts began to locate the tens of thousands of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) in the country’s hands. Japan had never signed the 1929 Geneva Convention, and refused to abide by the standard rules for treating prisoners. Physical punishments were common in the Japanese Army and were regularly used on prisoners, whose rations and medical supplies were also frequently stolen. They were also slow in reporting who they held prisoner (undoubtedly some POWs were never reported), and didn’t allow the Red Cross to make inspections. Forced labour was common, and life in the camps was known to be hellishly grim.
The main key for identifying a particular British prisoner, confirming their identity and discovering their all-important service number for further research is their Japanese Index Card, available on Findmypast. The cards are included in the collection ‘Prisoners Of War 1715–1945’ available at search.findmypast.co.uk/ search-world-records/prisonersof-war-1715-1945.
Filter Your Results
To find a card, especially for a common surname and initial (for example, F Smith), set the year to ‘1943 ± 2’. In the case of F Smith searching brings up 561 results, but this can be reduced by looking at those that have a year of birth and location such as Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Java, Malaya or Burma.
The origin of the cards (originally in TNA series WO345) is unknown. They were possibly created by a Japanese organisation with British assistance during the war, although I think it’s more likely that they’re of British origin, created in 1945 with assistance from the Japanese. The cards almost always contain the prisoner’s date of birth, the town where they were born, their parents’ first names, and the ‘Destination of Report’ section appears in many cases to contain the address (with name) of their wife. They generally follow the illustrated format, and
are in a mixture of English and Japanese. The back of each card sometimes has handwritten Japanese text, believed to be medical and/ or administrative. A diagonal red line across the card indicates that the prisoner had died. Although there are more than 50,000 Japanese
Index Cards, undoubtedly some POWs didn’t have one.
Japanese Dating
Dates are written in the Japanese style: year – month – day. The year is calculated from the beginning of Emperor Hirohito’s reign, so “16” is 1941, “17” is 1942 and so on. Even if the place of capture is only noted in Japanese, it’s frequently possible to deduce it from the date. For example, 25 December 1941 (written “16 12 25” on the card) is Hong Kong; 15 February 1942 is Singapore; dates before this usually mean the 1941
Malaya campaign; dates after 15 February 1942 mean the Dutch East Indies (Sumatra, Java or Borneo), or possibly Burma. Few prisoners were taken in 1943 and 1945.
The cards seem to relate only to British prisoners of war. Attempts to find cards for Canadian, Australian
and Indian Army troops who fought alongside the British have proved unsuccessful, although there may be a handful. The same applies to British officers of the Indian Army. However, some civilians interned by the Japanese have been included.
Advice On Searching
Findmypast has digitised and indexed several sets of POW documents, but they’re not all in the POW collection! Searching using Vernon Roach’s service number alone (6203597) in the whole military collection produces a total of 14 related documents, including reports showing him as missing, as a POW and on a list of POWs at Sendai POW Camp, Japan, in 1945. By piecing the information together his timeline as a POW can be constructed. The same method on ancestry.co.uk also produces references that appear to be duplicates of the ones on Findmypast. The same applies to references on Forces War Records, although the site does have an extensive article, derived from several sources, on the topic: forces-war-records. co.uk/prisoners-of-war-ofthe-japanese-1939-1945.
The National Archives (TNA) in Kew contains many files on this subject. The series WO356 contains index cards relating to prisoners, the accused, victims and witnesses, and the camps themselves. These can be downloaded for free from TNA’s website at discovery. nationalarchives.gov.uk/ details/r/C14560, as can series WO357, cards recording war crimes investigations and prosecutions, at discovery. nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/ C14561. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, these cards only show that other records exist, probably in WO325, indexed on TNA’s site but not online. Surviving Prisoner of War Questionnaires for prisoners of the Japanese are between WO392/23 and WO392/26; some are online at cofepow.org.uk.
indexed ‘Findmypast has digitised and several sets of POW documents’