As the title says...my (British) grandfather was in the Merchant Marine during the Second World War, and spent 3 years in a Japanese POW camp after his ship was sunk by a U-Boat.
He currently lives in England, so I don't see him often, and he (unsurprisingly) doesn't like talking about it. I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find information on where he might have been held, and such. Not for any real reason, besides my own curiosity.
Thanks in advance for all your help. This sub is fucking awesome.
This seems like a good start: Search in: World War II Prisoners of War Data File, 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946 from the U.S. National Archives.
I worked a few years in the Red Cross war archives in the Netherlands as a researcher. I looked into these questions a lot and worked with the original POW lists. In addition to what is already mentioned, I like to add the following: The Japanese telegraphed their POW records from Tokyo to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland. They telegraphed the list of POW's to the British Red Cross for the purpose of informing Armed Forces and family. The information you are looking for is probably in the already mentioned POW archive. Other options are the British Red Cross and the ICRC in Geneva. They all should have a copy of the list. You might try the Japanese Red Cross or other Japanese state archives, but I would not begin looking there. Usually the Allies took all the relevant sources with them to their countries. I never redirected a question like this towards the JRC.
Edit: As a merchant marine sailor he was militarized the moment GB was at war with Japan. So he officially served in the Royal Navy and was treated as a military prisoner of war.