Information sheets

Australian prisoners of war: Second World War
Prisoners of the Japanese: Japan

Important general background information - finding your POW
Online Resources
Official records
Private records
Books

Important general background information - finding your POW

The Encyclopedia entry Australian prisoners of war of the Japanese Second World War contains general information about the capture of Australian troops as well as entries on each location of imprisonment.

Online resources

The Memorial's website provides extensive information about our collections. This includes databases of the Roll of Honour, over 200,000 Photograph and Art images, and the Film, Private Records, Books, Serials and Sound collections. In addition, the Memorial's official records collection can be searched on the National Archives RecordSearch database. By consulting these databases, you will identify further information or particular items in the collections relevant to your interests.

Official Records

[8th Division in captivity: "C" force ( Japan )] Japan Parties, warning orders and instructions regarding clothing. Extracts from IJ (Imperial Japanese) orders in connection with the moves to Japan. Nominal Rolls, July-August 1942. AWM54 554/4/1

[8th Division in captivity - "J" Force ( Japan )] Copy of Diary by Captain C R Boyce, Medical Records "J" Force, 8 th Division AIF Changi Prisoners of War Camp, 1943-1945. AWM54 554/15/1

[8 th Division in captivity - "G" Force ( Japan )] Reports on Taisho Sub Camp, Osada - Oeyama Camp, Takefu camp by Major R V Glascow. AWM54 554/16/1

POW and Internees - treatment by enemy. Interrogation reports, Rakuyo Maru and Montevideo Maru. AWM54 779/*

POW & Internees Camps (including locations) Location and strengths - Prisoner of War and internment camps in Japan, 14 August 1945 . AWM54 779/13/*

War Crimes and Trials. Affidavits and Sworn Statements. AWM54 1010/-

Records of Australian Military Forces prisoners of war and missing, Far East and South West Pacific Islands . Contains nominal rolls and paybook photographs arranged by name, theatre of war and unit, location of POW camp. AWM232. The nominal rolls can be searched online.

Private Records

David Chadwick Hutchinson-Smith, (Captain ) "Guests of the Samurai", covers the period from the Japanese landing in Rabaul in January 1942 until the end of the war. Describes the author's surrender to the Japanese, transport from Lassul Bay to Rabaul on board the Duranbar, internment at Malaguna POW camp, removal of a large group of civilian internees on the ill-fated Montevideo Maru, transport to Yokohama in Japan by the boat Naruto Maru along with a group of Army nurses, and internment at Zentsuji and Nishi-Ashibetsu, on the island of Hokkaido and repatriation to Australia in September 1945. MSS1534

John Lane (Ramsbottom). Diaries maintained during captivity in Singapore, particularly working on the wharves, transportation to Japan with "J" Force, placement at Kobe House, work parties in the wharf and industrial areas of Kobe and details of the end of the war. PR88/084

Reginald W.J. Newton. Records relating to officers and enlisted men of "U" Battalion and the 2/19 Battalion who were prisoners of war [of the Japanese] in Burma, Thailand and Japan. The items include nominal rolls of killed, wounded and missing and lists of unit members who survived the war. PR01596

Books

Allan S. Walker, Middle East and Far East, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series 5 (Medical), vol. II (Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1953).

Lionel Wigmore, The Japanese Thrust, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series 1 (Army), vol. IV (Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1957).

Alexander Dandie, The story of "J" Force :300, 8 Division A.I.F., Singapore to Japan P.O.W. camps with American, British and Allied troops (Sydney, N.S.W.: A. Dandie, 1994).

Don Wall, Heroes at Sea, (Mona Vale, N.S.W.: D. Wall, 1991).

Margaret Reeson, Whereabouts unknown, (Sutherland, N.S.W.: Albatross Books, 1993).