Contents

Appendix 8

Japanese Index Card

At the end of the war, the War Office took into their possession 50,000 index cards which the Japanese compiled. The personal details are in English, but the other information is in Japanese. Copies of these cards are now available from the National Archives (Ref. WO345).

In the box headed Camp: The characters indicate Malaya Prisoner of War Camp. They are crossed through, indicating a transfer – this is confirmed by the character above which is Thailand.

No.: Almost identical characters crossed through, these are for the Malaya POW Book (the smaller crossed through ones above them remain a mystery.).

Above the box is the character for Thailand and the Roman numeral II, which indicates Jack was transferred to Thailand and the Burma – Siam Railway as part of Work Battalion or Camp 2 (We refer to them as Battalions or Parties, the Japanese referred to them as Camps)

First Line: The date of 17 / 11 / 3, which is the reverse of the English: 3 / 11 / 42 – except that the year is expressed as the Year of Showa, as Hirohito’s reign was known; 17 = 1942

The party that left Singapore on that date was O Party under the command of Lt. Cil. F. I. N. McOstrich, ROCS, 18^th Division.

On the next line the year date 18 = 1943, confirming he is on the Railway as part of Work Battalion or Camp 2.

The last line 20 / 8 / 30 = 30 / 8 / 1945 was the date he was released to the Allied Powers.