#47. From Capture to Liberation: Exploring POW Stories

Episode 45 – POWs of Japan Databases – Episode Transcript

Today I want to share a little bit about how I discover the unique war-time experiences of the servicemen and women who I feature on Left Behind.
When I’m researching a POW’s war-time experiences, my ultimate goal is to find answers to 5 Main Questions, which are:
1. War-Time Service Details
a. What was the POW’s war-time service in the months leading up to capture?
b. Specifically, I first want to discover the individual’s rank and unit served in. Knowing the specific unit allows me to search for that unit’s war-time assignments, movements, and activities. These unit facts gives me an idea of what the individual was doing during the war and where.
2. Capture Details
a. When and where was the individual captured? And what were the circumstances surrounding capture? Bataan Surender? On Corregidor? Captured while trying to escape the islands?
3. POW Camp(s) Details
a. What camp or camps was the POW imprisoned in?
b. Once I discover POW camp names and locations, I can search online for details about what was life like there, what were the guards were like, what was the main work POWs did in that camp, and so forth.
4. Transport Ship Information
a. What transport ship was the POW transported on (if he was transported to Japan)? I’m also looking for departure and arrival dates and places and any on-ship events of note.
b. A huge number of POWs in The Philippines were transported to Japan on board what we now call hell ships. There’s quite a bit of information on the Internet to help fill in gaps.
5. Liberation or Death Details
a. When and where was the POW liberated (if she/he survived the war) and what were circumstances surrounding liberation? When, where, and how did the POW die (if died as a POW)?
To start answering these questions, I used 2 specific POW databases. They are the first 2 places I search when I start to working on a story for a POW.

The first database is the WW2 Prisoners of War database.
This database contains information on around 140,000 Allied servicemen and women, and even civilians, who were POWs during World War II (roughly 1941-1946) in both the Pacific and European Theaters of the war.
This database was created from records and reports given to or created by the Red Cross.
Now, the Red Cross received a lot of their records and information from enemy sources during chaotic, war-time conditions when records weren’t always being kept well.
Thus, the information in this database is an excellent start to answer the 5 Main Questions. I consider the information in it as clues to help guide me to the real story.
So here are some things I find out about POWs in this database:
- An individual’s rank/grade, Arm of Service, and Area served. These give me some clues to the person’s war-service details.
- In the Capture Details category, the database can tell me when the POW was reported as being captured and by which country he/she was captured.
- The database offers the name of a POW camp associated with this POW – usually the last camp where the POW was at the time of liberation or death.
o Also, if a POW is liberated from a POW camp in Japan proper, then I know there is a transport ship I should look for.
- If a POW died on a transport ship, the database tells me the name of that ship and sometimes offers the exact date of the ship bombing or sinking.
- If a POW died in the Oryoku Maru tragedy (that’s the one where POWs were transferred among 3 ships and two of them were destroyed by American bombs, which I’ve mentioned in several episodes) – then the database tells me which specific ship the POW died on.
- The database can even let me know if the POW was executed or shot while attempting to escape (as opposed to dying of sickness or hunger).
Now all the data I learn from this database needs to be expanded upon by other sources. I think it’s pretty obvious that this database offers SO many initial clues to help get started in the research.
I access this database on Ancestry.com, but it can also be accessed for free on the National Archives website and on subscription-website Storied.com
And, if you’re interested in learning how to discover the war-time experiences of a POW, I’ve created cheat sheet to help you decode the information in this database and make sure you get all the clues out of it that you’ll want. I’ve even created a digital worksheet to help you gather that info in one place.
To snag your copy of that free cheat sheet, go to www.leftbehindpodcast.com/JapanPOWs. I’ve put the link in the show description.

OK, let’s move on to my second go-to POW database – which is called “Prisoners of the Japanese.” Where the previous database covers all Allied POWs during WW2, this one is focused on POWs detained by Japan during the war.
This database was created from various reliable POW records by a group of research volunteers in the early 2000s. Primary among those original POW records was information compiled by the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor – which was a POW veteran organization.
As the original members (ie former POWs) passed away, the organization wondered what to do with records the organization had collected. Destroy them? Keep them? Thankfully, descendants of POWs in the organization decided to compile those records into a database. Then they expanded to collect information from other reliable sources, such as POW records at the National Archives.
Today the database includes information on some 30,000 servicemen, women, and civilians who were imprisoned by the Japanese during WW2. It’s considered a secondary or tertiary source, but it is a trustworthy resource.
What I like most about this database is that it includes the exact unit the indivdiual was assigned to prior to capture as well as the individual’s service number.
Using the specific unit information, I can Google the unit’s name and find out what it was doing and where it was serving during WW2. And that, of course, helps me get context to tell the POW’s war-time combat activities part of the story.
I access this database on Ancestry.com, but it’s available for free on the NARA website. I’ll put the links in the show notes.

Now I want to be clear that these two databases do not answer all the 5 Main Questions I presented earlier. However, the databases do offer initial clues and information to help guide me to further details.
In the coming months, I plan to share information on other resources I use to tell these stories.

And don’t forget about the free Cheat Sheet I created to help you discover service and other details about a POW you might be curious about. You can get your copy online at www.leftbehindpodcast.com/JapanPOWs. Again, the link is in the show description.

Well, that’s Left Behind the Scenes for today. Be sure to like and subscribe so that you’re the first to know when I drop next week’s episode – about a group of US sailors who escaped from Manila Bay on a tiny boat and made their way 1,000s of miles south to Australia without getting caught.
Have a fantastic week.