The position as at March 15th 1946 is shown in the attached photo from TNA file WO 203/6047. There are more files in WO 203, e.g. WO 203/6080 War Office: South East Asia Command: Military Headquarters Papers, Second World War. ALLIED LAND FORCES SOUTH EAST ASIA. | Summary of situation and planning for operations EPILOGUE, PUFF and NIPOFF | Summary of situation and planning for operations EPILOGUE, PUFF and NIPOFF. | Held by: The National Archives, Kew 01/04/1946 31/05/1946 Former Reference Dep: ALFSEA 416/8
"General Numata has requested that the order of priority of repatriation from the OUTER ISLANDS should be:- See page from report below and this article from a Sydney newspaper, "The Sun", published in February 1946. They Call It
The Andaman Islands were not healthy places to be under Japanese rule in August 1945 as is illustrated by this case, held in March 1946, for which a transcript is available from the International Criminal Court website. The Japanese on the Andamans were amongst the first to be moved in the Nipoff operations. The charge was: "COMMITTING A WAR CRIME in that they in the ANDAMAN Islands between the 6th and 14th August 1945 in violation of the laws and usages of war were concerned in the ill-treatment and killing of 152 civilians including women and children." https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/bbca51/pdf
papiermache, In my recent Lombok surrender research I read about shifting Japanese POWs, in two Australian official histories. See Posts 6 & 9 in: The Japanese surrender on Lombok to the Australians: a puzzle Moving Jap POWs was not my focus, although I was puzzled that US ships manned by Japanese were used. It was noted the pre-surrender estimates of Japanese numbers in South-East Asia Command and South-West Pacific were found to be inaccurate. I am sure from reading long ago that the largest Japanese transfers home were from China / Manchuria. Somehow the USMC deployed to Manchuria an entire corps to watch over the surrender and transfer.
Thanks, David. I read the entertaining accounts on the HMS Sainfoin site with interest but have not looked at the other material as yet. Ideally I would look at all the TNA "Nipoff" files listed in series WO 203 together as a "bulk order" to try and establish the true "Former File Reference", which I think is "14/8J", not the TNA given reference of ALFSEA 385/4, as being most likely to be the one known to the first users of the file. Judge for yourself: see attached. Someone with the surname "Haslam" decided to let the file be opened to public view back in January 1980. Other former file references are as follows ( I put the search for "Nipoff" in WO 203 in to date order ): WO 203/6047: ALFSEA 385/4 WO 203/6346: HS/SEAC 1332/4 WO 203/6338: ALFSEA 384/4 WO 203/6048: ALFSEA 384/5 WO 203/6080: ALFSEA 416/8 WO 203/6049: ALFSEA 348/6 WO 203/6339: ALFSEA 337/10 WO 203/6050: ALFSEA 385/1 WO 203/6340: ALFSEA 385/5 WO 203/6347: HS/SEAC 1331/2 WO 203/6051: ALFSEA 385/2 WO 203/6348: HS/SEAC 1359/2 WO 203/6052: 404/4 WO 203/6341: ALFSEA 404/7 WO 203/6053: 404/5 WO 203/6054: 404/6 For good measure I attach the whole of the file photos I took of WO 203/6047, which are not particularly sharp, unfortunately. This downloadable file at Chapter VI refers to the manning of US vessels by Japanese. Reports of General MacArthur, MacArthur in Japan: The Occupation: Military Phase, Volume I Supplement Again, I have not read it thoroughly. I tend to look at the subject from looking at such of the limited number of files created by the Deputy Judge Advocate General based in Singapore which have made it to Kew, or such as I have seen. These tend to be trial files in WO 235, Singapore DJAG files in WO 325, and investigation files by camp name and general administration files of London JAG ( very limited indeed, only 15 out of 365 camp files ) in WO311. WO 356 and WO 357 also contain information on Japanese surrendered personnel held on suspicion of having committed war crimes. From the file cover of the sole WO 203 file I have I read the following: REL/G/3172/1 WO 203/6047 20883 A.M.?? Haslam 28 Jan 80. O P War L8107 14/8J G(OPS)2 NIPOFF ALFSEA 385/4 1946 FEB - MAR Evacuation of Japanese to Japan Part II - 101 - 188 1946 FEB - MAR There is also a reference to a "G(SD) 3 file No 67800/SD 3" on the first page of the report. By the way, most British people would refer to "Japs" but PoWs found that their captors found this term derogatory, and that since "Nip" was short for "Nippon", which was the proper name recognised by the "Japanese" themselves, then "Nip" was acceptable to them. As explained by John Coast in his classic work "The Railroad of Death", published in 1946, PoWs were happy to use the term "Nip". Hence, "Nipoff". John
Searching for Reference Code C15010550500 at Japan Center for Asian Historical Records reveals this Japanese text which Google translate renders in to the English below: Summary 昭和二十年九月 艦艇ヲ以テスル在外地軍官民内地還送計画 海軍省 一 配船 (一) 聯合国側ノ要請ニ依リ行動半径七五〇浬以上ノ艦艇中四〇%ヲ島其ノ他南方方面ニ差当リ使用 (二) 南方方面配船順位左ノ粗伊勢 ○病院及医療施設ナキ地域 ○自活困難ナル地域 ○南洋諸島及「ラボール」方面 (三) 北鮮、満洲、樺太、千島方面ハソ聯側ノ承認アリ次第 (四) 行動半径七五〇浬未満ノ艦艇ハ差当リ南鮮、支那及近海諸島ニ配船ス (五) 南西方面ハ前諸項終了後配船ス但シ「アンダマン」「ビルマ」方面ニ関シテハ確実ナル情報ヲ得次第配船スルコトアリ (六) 配船計画 別紙第一ノ通 二 補給 (一) 燃料及需品 ○内地ニ於ケル補給ハ＠須賀及佐世保 September 1945 Plan to return military personnel overseas to the homeland using ships Ministry of the Navy 1. Assignment of ships (2) The order of allocation of ships for the south: Rough Ise ○ Hospitals and medical facilities Naki area ○ Nar area where self-support is difficult ○ South Sea Islands and "Labor" area (3) North Korea, Manchuria, (4) Vessels with a radius of action of less than 750 nautical miles will be dispatched to South Korea, China, and the coastal islands. Ships, however, will be dispatched as soon as reliable information regarding "Andaman" and "Burma" is obtained. ＠Suga and Sasebo
From JACAR, reference B22010103600, originally numbered 0093 and 0094, JPEG frame number 0063 ( a pdf is available , if chosen ): " 8. In the evacuation of Japanese nationals from areas under the control of: the Generalissimo, Chinese Armies; the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command; the General Officer Commanding, Australian Military Forces; and the Commander-in-Chief, Soviet Forces in the Far East, this headquarters will make the necessary arrangements."
