American POWs in Japan

[hammack51]

I've heard a story about an American soldier taken prisoner in the Philippines in 1942, and upon his release in 1945, his captors gave him a Nazi officer's uniform to wear. I'd never heard of such a situation before. Was this known to happen, and if so, was it common?

[Kev in Deva]

Probably just that, a story.

I doubt if there is much of a way to verify it,

without pictorial evidence.

Kevin in Deva :cheers:

[Paul L Murphy]

Highly unlikely. For a start, where would the uniform have come from ? The only German officers in Japan were the military attaches and a small number of U-Boat officers at resupply bases. Without pictures to support this I would say it is one of those anecdotal stories that do the rounds but are untrue.

[hammack51]

What all this is based on is that a local museum received a Nazi artillery officer's tunic. The donor said it was brought home by an uncle who was indeed taken prisoner in the Philippines (plenty of verification for this), and remained a prisoner until war's end. The donor then said his uncle was given the Nazi jacket upon his release as a sort of "final insult." I agree, it all sounds pretty unlikely, but that's the story so far. I'd never heard of such a situation, and wanted to see if anyone had ever heard of such an incident taking place.

What makes it all stranger is that the insignia on the tunic show it to be that of a sergeant in Field Artillery Regiment 9, with ribbons denoting Iron Cross 2nd class and Winter campaign in the east 1941-42. Again, how would this tunic have found its way to Japan?

Edited September 24, 2009 by hammack51

[Paul L Murphy]

This does not sound credible, I suspect somebody has got their stories mixed up or else they are just making it up out of nothing. The likelihood of an artillery NCO's tunic ending up in Japan is very small and the "last insult" type of behaviour is not consistent with how the Japanese in general behaved after being ordered to surrender by the Emperor.

[hammack51]

Thanks to everyone for the input. It's been very helpful.