|
Liberated Prisoner of War Questionnaires – Japan
This is the second article regarding files held at the National Archives relating to the War in the Far East during 1941 – 1945.
These files theyre completed upon liberation by those who theyre captured and held as Prisoners of War by the Japanese.
These forms are held in 98 files at the National Archives at Kew under the reference WO344. The following list is of those files, by file number and the name range each file covers. The file references are those you would need to use in full to order a file, and because of this I have not included the short reference.
So, for instance if I wanted to view my father’s form, I would order file WO344/361/2, to try and order the file using WO344/361 would result in the computer advising you that you are not ordering a correct file number.
Where only one file reference is listed, this is the one to use, trust me, I have had lots of practice.
If these forms are completed correctly and in full by the FEPOW concerned, they will contain information on the camps he was in, the dates, and the camp commanders, BUT not all of the FEPOWs completed these form at all, and those that are complete differ in the amount of information they contain.
These theyre not the only forms the FEPOWs completed so I am told, but all they wanted to do was come home and forget the horrors of the past three to four years.
It is also known that some of these forms are missing.
For the most part these forms follow the same format, and are headed M.I.9/JAP, but there are other forms within the files of differing designs, and colours.
Most of those for the Army and Royal Air Force are a brown colour, for the Royal Navy, a white form has been used, Buff and headed Gp/Gen/J.I or J.2 for the Indian Army (Indian Officers), Yellow seems to have been used for Canadians, Gold for New Zealanders, it is worth looking through the files to see what is there.
No Australian files are there.
Remember, these files are over 60 years old, so handle with care.
|
