Catalogue description War Office: Japanese Index Cards of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees, Second World War

This series comprises some 50,000 pre-printed cards of uncertain provenance. They appear to have been compiled by a central Japanese authority which has not been identified. There has been some degree of Allied assistance in compiling, maintaining etc.

The index cards record (with certain exceptions, consistently) the following details:

• Camp (may be subject to change due to transfer) (In Japanese);
• Name;
• Nationality (In English, or English and Japanese);
• Rank (In English, or English and Japanese);
• Place of Capture (In English, or English and Japanese);
• Father's name;
• Place of origin;
• Destination of report (assumed to be report of capture, sent to next of kin at address given);
• 'No' i.e. Prisoner's Camp Number (established by comparison with other records) (May be subject to change due to transfer) (In Japanese);
• Date of birth;
• Unit and service number;
• Date of capture (In English, or English and Japanese);
• Mother's name;
• Occupation (In English, or English and Japanese);
• Remarks;
• Other information (on reverse) which may include medical details. (In Japanese, possibly partly translated).

Diagonal red lines across some cards appear to indicate that the prisoners were dead.

Whilst for Prisoner's Camp Number the relevance of a number has been established, the significance of other numbers or letter/number combinations has not been established.

For registers which complement or supplement the cards in this series see WO 367

War Office, Adjutant General, Directorate of Prisoners of War, 1940-1945