As a follow up- How did this differ from POWs in WW1 (which I would suspect would be similar) or a wildly different conflict such as the America-Vietnam War?
WWII: War Claims Commission
In the United States, payments to WWII POWs and internees were made by the War Claims Commission (WCC), which was established by the War Claims Act of 1948 (50 U.S.C. App. 2001 et seq.). Under Section 12 of the War Claims Act, German and Japanese assets seized by the United States after December 17, 1941, under the Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, (40 Stat. 411) as amended, were to be liquidated and placed in a War Claims Fund created on the books of the U.S. Treasury. According to 1959 testimony by the head of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, the total amount of these liquidated assets amounted to $228,750,000.15 The 1952 amendments to the War Claims Act (P.L. 303, 66 Stat. 47, 49 [1952]), designated April 9, 1953, as the last day for the Commission to receive claims relative to WWII, and WCC programs were completed on March 31, 1955.
The War Claims Act of 1948, or Public Law 80-896 (62 Stat. 1240; 50 U.S.C.) is a United States federal law passed by the 80th United States Congress on July 3, 1948. It created the War Claims Commission to adjudicate claims and pay out compensation to American prisoners of war and civilian internees of World War II.[1] It authorized ten prisoner of war and civilian internee compensation programs, and four war damage and loss compensation programs. Payments and administrative expenses for all but three of the programs were paid by the liquidation of Japanese and German assets seized by the U.S. after World War II.[2] Payments to prisoners of war were at the rate of US$1 to $2.50 per day of imprisonment, payments to civilian internees of Japan amounted to $60 for each month of internment. Civilians were also eligible for compensation for disability or death. The act did not authorize compensation for civilian internees held by Germany.[1]
TLDR; The compensation was $1.00- 2.50 a day, or $13-33 a day adjusted for inflation.
Pay for an infantryman (private) was $500 a year, so that gives you a comparison.
http://www.usmm.org/barrons.html
http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/usprisoners_japancomp.htm
Would be curious if anyone had information on this from an Australian perspective as well.
My grandfather's family was told he had been killed as a POW in 1941 but turned out he survived until mid 1945 before dying. The paperwork must have been a nightmare.