Bertie Robert Howard
Photographs of Japanese Prison Camps and Prisoners of War (POW)

WARNING - Some of these photographs are confronting and show the brutal manner in which POWs were treated by the Japanese.

Sorting the photographs into the sequence shown below helped me to understand what they are and under what circumstances they could have been taken. I am of the firm belief that these pictures could not have been taken during incarceration. The absence of guards of any sort other that a single photograph tightly grouped makes this certain, as do the photographs of the bombed bridge from the air and from the ground.

The photographs could only have been taken almost immediately after the liberation of Prisoners of War to ensure that there is an historic record. There was certainly re-enactment, given away in particular by the facial expressions and physiques of those in the image of the group carrying what appears to be a stretcher.The grave re-enactment with timber coffins is also highly unlikely. Bodies were buried in most cases just as the were, without the benefit of coffin or shroud.

For the same reason, and although original resolution and light management are poor ( a product of the technology at the time) I have chosen to display the photographs at a size which for the most part captures sufficient detail. The photographs were scanned at 300 dpi they can be further enlarged.

The sequence in which I have displayed them is:
(a)     External views of huts;
(b)     Interior views of huts;
(c)     Outdoor scenes;
(d)     Records of physical condition;
(e)     Camp surgery;
(f)      Graves;
(g)     Possible Japanese guards; and
(h)     Aerial photographs.

POW hut, external view