For the first time, the numbers of prisoners of war incarcerated at camps across Japan during World War II and their captivity and forced labor in appalling conditions have been documented in detail.

The findings from more than 20 years of painstaking research by a citizens' group were published this month in an encyclopedia of nearly 1,000 pages.

POW Research Network Japan released “Horyoshuyojo Minkanjin-Yokuryujo Jiten” (Encyclopedia of POW camps and civilian internment camps) from Tokyo-based publisher Suirensha.

The publication of the book was proposed by Masato Takahashi, 67, Suirensha’s president and a member of the group.

“It is important to have basic facts to convey the war to the younger generations,” Takahashi said. “I hope that the encyclopedia will be used as a resource book for peace studies and regional studies.”

For writing the book, members interviewed former POWs and Japanese individuals concerned and also researched U.S. official documents.

They learned that former POWs who survived and returned to their home countries suffered deep emotional and physical trauma, and that those scars have been passed on to their children and grandchildren.

“Nearly 80 years after the end of the war, there are still people suffering from unhealed wounds,” said former broadcast writer Taeko Sasamoto, 75, co-representative of the group.

“We wanted to compile this encyclopedia to let people know that there were POW camps in their own neighborhoods and think about war and peace.”

About 130 POW camps were built in Japan during the war, and POWs were forced to toil in coal mines, factories and elsewhere. Many died of disease, starvation and violence.

For each POW camp, the book details the number of POWs and deaths, the history from opening to closure and the lives of POWs including their forced labor.

POW Research Network Japan has been conducting research on POWs since 2002. The writing of the book was shared by about 20 members.

Sasamoto was in charge of the No. 14 branch of the Fukuoka POW camp, among other facilities.

It was located on the grounds of the Saiwaimachi works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.’s Nagasaki shipyard in the city of Nagasaki.

Eight POWs--seven Dutch and one British--died in the U.S. atomic bombing of the city on Aug. 9, 1945. The branch camp was located 1.7 kilometers from ground zero.

More than 100 POWs also died from illnesses and other causes.

“U.S. military documents show that the United States dropped the atomic bomb despite knowing that there was a POW camp in Nagasaki,” Sasamoto said.

The Japanese military captured about 160,000 military personnel of the Allied nations in Asia and the South Pacific during the war and transported more than 35,000 prisoners to Japan to fill labor shortages, according to the group.

Nationalities included Britain, the United States, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Foreign nationals who were living in Japan were also interned as enemy aliens, and there were 52 camps for such individuals, including those that existed for a short period, according to the group.

Mayumi Komiya, 72, a former high school history teacher, was responsible for writing about civilian internment camps.

The Kanagawa Prefecture civilian internment camp No. 1 was located at the foot of Mount Ashigarayama in the city of Minami-Ashigara, Kanagawa Prefecture.

When it was closed, there were 44 male internees: 22 Britons, 13 Canadians, six Americans and three Greeks.

According to testimonies submitted to the war crimes tribunal, the diet for internees worsened from around 1944 and the daily meal consisted of only a bowl of rice and watery soup.

Even if they became sick, internees were unable to see a doctor. Five internees, or 10 percent of the total, died from illnesses and other causes.

“We want young people today to know the reality of war and understand that even civilians were forcibly detained as enemy aliens,” Komiya said.

Kuniko Takagawa, 62, a video translator, was in charge of a wartime foreign evacuee settlement established in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture.

She said there were different backgrounds for foreign nationals there, including those who voluntarily evacuated, Jews expelled from Tokyo and diplomats forcibly evacuated.

It has been confirmed that there were about 1,800 foreign nationals of more than 30 nationalities when the war ended.

“The book is the fruit of 20 years of efforts by our group,” Takagawa said. “I am glad to have been able to participate.”

Historical sociologist Aiko Utsumi, 82, a member of the group’s editorial committee, said it is significant that the book has brought to light the reality of POW camps, which has not been researched before, and the full extent of foreign labor during the war.

“Members of the group, together with Japanese individuals concerned, have had exchanges with former POWs and civilian internees,” said Utsumi, a professor emeritus at Keisen University. “I commend their efforts to objectively clarify the facts from the viewpoints of both the victimizers and the victims.”