4970477 Pte Samuel BERESFORD, 1/5 Sherwood Foresters: Japanese POW Card.

Hi, does anyone know where or how I can get Samuel Beresford's POW Card translated from the Japanese.
Regards Richard.

 

Whilst I cannot translate the Japanese I can tell you that Samuel Beresford was transported from Singapore to Taiwan on 28 Oct 42.
Never Forgotten :: The Story of the Taiwan POW Camps
B Database

Tim

 

Thank you Tim

 

I know that people have used this site for WW2 related translations, but you would have to register:

Translations

 

This piece is printed by Google translate as 服和十七年十一月十四日 and translates as: November 14th, the 17th year of the Showa era, or 14/11/1942.

This is just a translation of the hand-written date not the "Other information" top line. How it does it is beyond me.



The remainder of the line after the date might be:

日台湾得層收容所第二分所二段官大

but might be quite wrong!

I got: "Japan-Taiwan Tokusho 2nd Branch, 2nd Dan Kandai"

The next information is part rubber stamps, part Arabic numbers: meaning 5/9/1945 and 6/9/1945



And might be:

基隆一般厂，米海軍军隊司今寓知四十七输送师里县
米海軍少將 b'r IP（理米第四十八海完输送
默隊長A.B列于太）一引

I got:

"Keelung General Hall, U.S. Navy Corps Commander, 47 Emigration Command Center
U.S. Navy Ensign b'r IP
Captain Black A.B Retsu Yuta) Ichihiki"

The information is in Japanese shortened characters so Google translate and "Copy and paste" can come up with all sorts of renditions. It differs if the pieces "copied" are in short groups.

 

papiermache that's very impressive, great job.

 

As he appears to have gone to Formosa (Taiwan), his name will be engraved on the POW Memorial Wall at Kinkaseki.
Note: he was also at Kinkaseki; a notorious Copper Mine camp. There is also quite a lot of information on this Forum about Kinkaseki and other Camps and several books have been published by survivors. My Uncle George was also at Kinkaseki and hence my interest starting with a thread entitled "Does anyone here speak Japanese"
Does anyone here speak Japanese?
Note: cross referring to my "Does anyone here speak Japanese" thread, he appears to have been transported on the same Hell Ship - the England Maru - as my Uncle George.

 

It is good of you to say so, John, but it is guesswork

People said Japanese could not be taught in 6 months but they did, as explained in this fascinating book { I've got somewhere }

"Codebreaker In The Far East
Stripp, Alan
ISBN 10: 0192803867 / ISBN 13: 9780192803863"

Then they had to learn how characters are shortened: somehow Google Translate can do this.

A long time ago the "Friends of Dutch National Archives" translated IJA cards into English, which was very kind of them, and for proper translations go to this link and search, for example, for "Taiwan", which seems to be relevant to the thread, and compare cards.

Japanse interneringskaarten

IJA cards were worked on post war at the Japanese Prisoner of War Information Bureau in Tokyo under SCAP guidance and eventually returned to the Allied nations, as was required by the Hague rules. Many cards reflect the fact that the Japanese PWIB either did not receive information during the war from the distant places Japan had occupied or had to recreate cards from lists. The markings in red on cards were made by the PWIB.