By direction of the Chief, Investigation Division, Lt. S. Walters and Lt. J.E. Ammon, accompanied by T/4 Toda, as interpreter, proceeded to Osaka and made an investigation of the Main POW Camp there.

(The report to supply information for the prosecution of criminals)

History of the Osaka Main camp - 21 September 1942 the Osaka Main Camp was established at Chikko. The POWS remained at Chikko until 1 June 1945, when the camp was bombed out. They moved to Tsumori Camp (the description and report on this camp was given in a previous report). Tsumori was considered to be in an unsafe location, so the POWs were transferred to Kita-Fukuzaki. On the 10th of July 1945 the main office was separated from the Camp. The camp was then called Osaka Camp 1st branch. The main office was moved to Shimo Shinden, Shinden-mura, Mishima-gun which is about five miles north-east of Osaka. Chikko, Tsumori and Kita-Fukuzaki are all in the city of Osaka

1. Location: see enclosed exhibits for exact location of these camps. [not found].
Military objectives - all three locations of this camp were situated along the Osaka waterfront and in the midst of vital military objectives. Both Tsumori and Chikko were bombed and burned completely and Kita-Fukusaki was damaged.

2. Description: The camp at Chikko was bombed and burned flat, and only the foundations of the buildings remain. The camp consisted of several wooden buildings covered with mud stucco. Overall dimensions of the camp were 23-' x 130'. [230' x 130']

    POW quarters consisted of two one story barracks, each 72' x 33' in size. These two barracks had triple-decker bunks. A third building 72' x 30' was of two story construction. A space on the first floor 30' x 24' was used solely as a sick war. The second floor contained POW quarters. A fourth building 64' x 30' quartered POWS on the second floor only.
     The kitchen was 30' x 30' and had eight brick stoves. There was a cement bath 10' x 10' and ten showers. The dispensary was a room 21' square and next to it was the guard house and one cell. (line unreadable) four ft. wide. This was not adequate for the number of POWs held.
     On 2 June 1945 the POWs were transferred to Tsumori Cp. (this camp had already been covered in an earlier report). On 10 July 1945 they were again transferred to 7 Nishino-sho, Kita-Fukuzaki, Minato Ku in Osaka. Here they were quartered in three rooms on the second floor of a large warehouse. Each room was 55' long and 40' wide with cement floor and cement walls, with a low-ceiling only about 5 feet high in some places. On the first floor of the warehouse was the guard house, 15' x 15'.
     Outside the warehouse was the kitchen, w wooden building built by the POWs. It contained 4 brick stoves and 1 brick oven. Next to the kitchen was a large cement water tank for fire fighting. The (line unreadable).

3. Utilization: The Osaka camp was established to provide workers for the docks and stevedoring cos. of Osaka Port.
     Clothing: The prisoners had their own clothing plus Jap uniforms. Their shoes were either their own or Jap army shoes, some PWs were issued the rubber soled sneakers. The Prisoners operated a shoe repair shop in the camp.

4. Prisoner of War Personnel: The Prisoners arrived on 11 October 1942. They were British from Hong Kong and were 500 in number. They came from Hong Kong on the Lisbon [Maru].

5. Guards: for a complete roster of the Japanese Army Personnel at this camp see the attached Exhibit. [Not attached]

6. Work: All the prisoners from the camp worked for various transportation and stevedoring cos. of the Osaka Port. They loaded and unloaded ships, transported materials, worked in warehouses and loaded and unloaded railroad cars at the docks. They worked on all kinds of goods, usually foodstuffs and clothing. Some Military equipment consigned to Jap armies in the So. Pacific.

Working Hours-
0800 started work
1200-1300 lunch
1600 - quit

     During the day they got breaks depending on the job they were doing. Some of the working places were close to the camp others farther away. At Tsumori the POW's were ferried to the docks to work. At Kita-Fukuzaki, they were transported by street car or bus to the dock area.
     Pay: 1 Yen per day of which the PW received 20 sen.
     Red Cross: During the entire time the camp was open the Prisoners only recd one-third of a red cross package. (No facts were obtained on what became of the rest of them).

7. Food: A sample days rations as follows:

Breakfast - Rice and soup
Lunch (carried by the PWs to work) Rice, sometimes bread, seaweed.
Dinner - Rice and soup, fish every 10 days, meat once or twice a month; vegetables (one kind each night) onions, potatoes (line unreadable)---a Jap army doctor of the camp.

    {Deaths:} 25 men died at this camp, 10 from pneumonia and 15 from beri-beri. Some of the worst cases were removed to Itchioka Hospital just before they died. Some of these deaths were due to the weakened condition the Prisoners were in when they arrived in Japan.

We, James B. Ammon, 2d Lt., O-1185962 and Samuel E. Walters, 2nd Lt., O-1332112, certify that the above facts are as we saw as as were told to us during our investigation of the Osaka Main Prisoner of War Camp. This investigation took place 11-12 February 1946.

Osaka, Honshu, Japan
12 Feb 1945

/S/ James B. Ammon
/S/ Samuel E. Walters