to perpetuate the memory and history of our dead

16f. IJA photos

There are only a handful of existing photos taken by the IJA soldiers. Some document the building of the TBR; others were taken at the joining ceremony or as group photos. The latter ones in this gallery were taken by the Australian teams to document the identity of possible war criminals. Since the POWs knew them only by (rather derogatory) nicknames, positive IDs were required to prosecute them.

An video of IJA troops as EPWs after their surrender:

https://fb.watch/7qUdromt1K/

The following photos are hard to place in time or space but show IJA soldiers — likely Engineers — working alongside the Allied POWs.

In an on-line discussion, some of these photos were attributed to an IJA Engineer named Sugano. The photo below is purported to be that same MAJ (later COL) Renishi Sugano who worked the TBR as an engineer and was later instrumental in adding the Loco # C5631 to the shrine in Japan. I am as yet unable to verify those claims.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

eighteen − 1 =