LONDON, March 30 Kyodo A Japanese...

LONDON, March 30 Kyodo

A Japanese team is researching the personal histories of the 3500 Allied prisoners who died in Japan, chiefly as a result of harsh treatment, during World War II in an effort to educate their compatriots and aid reconciliation between former foes

The POW Research Network Japan is busy studying historical records and interviewing former POW their families and former prison guards in order to build up a comprehensive picture of the experiences of all those who perished in the Japanese mainland's 130 prison camps.

They reliance their research, which they intend to publish in succession the Internet and in a main division will provide a form of healing to all those former POW and their families who have struggl to find information about their former comrades and lov ones

The 30-strong cluster also hopes that documenting what happened in the prison camps will act as a permanent reminder to the Japanese nation -- largely ignorant of what happened, according to the network -- and avoid like outrages taking place again.

During the war, approximately 35000 Allied prisoners were taken to Japan from several Southeast Asian countries. Many of them were lay to work in mines and around 10% died of illnesses, many of which, according to the Network, could have been avoided had they been given fitting medical care.

The organization was locate up in 2002 by Yoshiko Tamura and Taeko Sasamoto, who met while taking down details from the gravestones at the Commonwealth war burial-ground in Hodogaya, Yokohama. The graveyard is the resting place for 1800 men -- the bodies of non-Commonwealth citizens were repatriated after the war.

In an interview with Kyodo freshs while visiting former POWs in Britain lately Sasamoto said, ''Although I live near the graveyard I had no idea it was there until a scarcely any years ago. I learned about the terrible circumstances of the prisoners' deaths and fancy why on earth have we not heard about this before? Then, I heard all these anti-Japanese stories from former POW and realized people's antagonism towards Japan. That brought a great sadness to me''

Sasamoto and Tamura first started noting down basic information -- similar as the prisoner's name, regiment, nationality, age and date of death -- from the 1800 gravestones, and then tried to find on the outside more about each prisoner.

Tamura explained, ''Ex-POW talk about their comrades and for what cause they passed away, and from that we can secure more information about their prison camp and real cause of death.''

As they discovered more about the former soldiers they realized that other clan were also interested in the enthrall so they decided to fix up the network in order to help each other and swap information.

At first, they erect it a struggle as many wartime files had been overturned and those remaining, mainly from the war crimes trials, were aged and often hard to read.

Their research was given a boost however, when united of their members base a U.S. list of all the 3500 Allied soldiers who died in Japan. This list also included cause of death and prison camp details for around 40% of the Hodogaya graves.

in the same manner far, the Network has been able to gather varying of the same heights of information on about 90% of the 3500 prisoners onward the U.S. list. They anticipate though, that this work will take up the quiescence of their lives.

Their research has taken the sum of two units women on visits across the world as they befitting up with former POWs and their families. They have also oral to many of the veterans who have replyed to Japan on visits.

They have traveled to former prison sites still in many of the locations they find the locals are reluctant to talk about the past or permit memorials to be built -- solely 10 of the 130 camps have them.

This is frequently because many of the former prison guards' families still live in the area, says Sasamoto. She believes that Japanese the community need to know about what happened for a like reason that history does not repeat itself.

''We were not told at place of education about the POWs in Japan -- it's a dark history. nevertheless we have to keep a record -- for the coming events so that we not do such a thing again, and share this earth together with population overseas,'' she said.

Sasamoto said the prisoners died as a be the effect of lack of food and medicines, beatings and torture, as well as Allied air attacks in succession Japan.

''Not alone will this research be valuable for the sake of the historical record, we trust that it will be useful for the surviving POW their families and friends, who have no idea what camp their relative or friend died in, and would like to know more,'' she said.

Former soldier Philip Malins, who has been at the forefront of Anglo-Japanese reconciliation in Britain, said, ''I know in what way deeply the relatives of former POW wish to know what happened to their lov undivideds and how valuable what Mr Sasamoto and Mr Tamura do for them is.''

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