Blacky Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 My Great Uncle was a Japanese POW during WW2. I have just located his POW card but I'm after some assistance if anyone can tell me where he was captured or the camp he was sent to? Also, does anyone know why the date of capture would appear to show 19.3.15? Would appreciate any help... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syrup Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 According to Find My Past Transcript it shows the POW Camp is Malaya PoW camp. First name(s) William Eric Last name Burke Year 1944 Birth year 1923 Nationality British Residence Doncaster Residence couty Yorkshire Residence coutry England Rank Private Regiment - Prison camp oship Malaya PoW camp Country of imprisonment Malaya Conflict World War 2 Archive reference WO 345/8 Document details War Office: Japanese Index Cards of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees, Second World War, 1942-1945 Record set Prisoners of War 1715-1945 Category Military, armed forces & conflict Subcategory Regimental & service records Collections from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacky Posted January 24, 2016 Author Share Posted January 24, 2016 ahhhh! the transcript. I never thought to check that. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLongden Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Just out of interest, although the Gregorian calendar was introduced in Japan from 1873, there is also a native Japanese date system where years are based on the reigns of emperors and designated as one of twelve animals (e.g. dragon, monkey, rooster, etc.) The months and days are based on a lunar calendar, consisting of 12 months of either 29 or 30 days, each split into a 'week' of 6 days. Japanese dates in script are always written right to left, so is read YY/MM/DD. This date system would have been in common use during WWII and probably answers the question over why the dates on the PoW admission card seem odd (with the exception of your Great Uncle's d.o.b. of 1923). So, his date of capture was 19/3/15, or the 15th day of the 3rd month of the year 'Showa' 19 (year of the monkey). This would correspond to the western date of 15 March 1944. His admission to camp was on the 27th day of that same month and year. Interestingly, they kept his d.o.b. as the Gregorian date of 1923, probably as they could not have worked out that 1923 was actually 'Taisho' 12 (year of the pig)? Does that help with working out the actual dates? It seems to match the year of 1944 shown on the transcript. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacky Posted January 25, 2016 Author Share Posted January 25, 2016 Great info, thanks very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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