Medical history of a WWII internment camp: creating online access to the voices of civilians interned by the Japanese on Singapore, 1942-1945

Cambridge University Library plans to conserve, digitise and share freely with researchers worldwide the archives of two Second World War civilian internment camps on Singapore, Changi and Sime Road. Few survivors of Japanese internment spoke of their traumatic experience, but these archives hold detailed descriptions of the POWs’ captivity – their accommodation, work, recreation, diet and health. The archive holds the records of 3,500 POW (men, women and children) from 25 nationalities. These will be of huge interest to people researching the effects of malnutrition and tropical disease. The project is to repair, clean and digitize these records after they are repackaged to allow access for families of internees and researchers.