Japanese POWs and Internees in Australia during 1941-45
(no login) Posted May 1, 2012 1:25 AM
Dear friends,
Just a short note to let you know that the National Archives of Australia (NAA) published the POW cards of all Japanese military (POWS)and civilian prisoners (Internees) who were being held in the Australian POW Camps during World War II (1941-1945). You can access this collection by following the following instructions:
3.) Write "Prisoner of War/Internee, Japanese" in the Keyword box
4.) Press Search button
You'll get the names of some 16,500 Japanese POWs and Civilian Internees held in Australia.
Unfortunately the item list only contains the names, date of birth and nationality of a prisoner, so for example to search for the survivors of destroyer YAYOI you pretty much need to go through the entire item list. Last autumn I went through this list, but was only able to check some 2,000 names before I "dropped dead tired", but among those names I did find the names of five Yayoi survivors. Here are their names with their cards:
1. Engineering-Warrant Officer 3rd Class AKIRA TSUTA, born Hamago (Miyazaki Prefecture), 1920
URL1: shrani.si/f/2u/KS/1Md5vrnZ/1/pow5.jpg [copy and paste the URL into your browser address]
2. Engineer 2nd Class HISAO TAKAKI, born Saigo-mura (Miyazaki Prefecture), 1920
URL2: shrani.si/f/1r/Nw/qawAwal/pow9.jpg
3. Seaman 1st Class YOSHIMASA OMINE, born Takamatsu (Kagawa Prefecture), 1921
URL3: shrani.si/f/19/Q8/118MgBdv/pow10.jpg
4. Seaman 2nd Class SHOMI HIKIURA, born Omura Machi (Nagasaki Prefecture), 1922
URL4: shrani.si/f/F/Lm/3hSi0dC7/pow16.jpg
5. Seaman 1st Class TOYOTAKA INUI, born Kuroishi (Kochi Prefecture), 1917
URL5: shrani.si/f/P/lb/heAufQw/pow37.jpg
Most Japanese servicemen were born between 1914-1926, so this is one of the criterias which can narrow down the search. There are plenty of Japanese civilian internees, like pearl handlers from Torrest Strait and the list includes also the names of Japanese civilian internees from Dutch East Indies.
I tried to search for the names of those two Japanese submariners from I-60, sunk in Sunda Strait in January 1942 by HMS Jupiter, but so far I couldn't find them. I assume they were in that convoy which brought Japanese internees to Australia. So if anyone by any chance stumbles upon their names, I would be much obliged if you could post their names on this forum or send it to my private email address. So much from me for today.
