In the few weeks following the announcement of the surrender of the Japanese ending the combat but before the official ceremonies were held on 2 SEP 45, the IJA systematically destroyed just about every record pertaining to the Asian Forced Laborers. It was their position that while they had a duty to preserve the meticulous records they kept on the Allied POWs, the details of their treatment of civilians were an “internal matter” that was not governed by any agreements such as the Geneva Conventions.
As such, essentially no records concerning the AFL survived. Where as the various military officers kept detailed records of the names, dates and places of the POW deaths, no one was even counting the AFL deaths.
The only records that native Asians had worked on the Thai-Burma Railway (TBR) were a few photographs of them working alongside Allied POWs. Were it not for these and the Thai-anusorn monument, we’d be hard pressed to document the existence of this work force.
Most of what we do know was recorded in witness and survivor accounts.