JAPANESE INDEX CARDS FOR POWS

As soon as Japan announced its surrender on 15 August 1945, efforts began to locate the tens of thousands of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) in the country’s hands. Japan had never signed the 1929 Geneva Convention, and refused to abide by the standard rules for treating prisoners. Physical punishments were common in the Japanese Army and were regularly used on prisoners, whose rations and medical supplies were also frequently stolen. They were also slow in reporting who they held prisoner