Newspapers from World War I prisoners of war in Japan (1914-1918)

   The article examines periodicals published in prisoner-of-war camps; for the first time in Russian historiography, special attention is paid to newspapers published in the camps of German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war during the First World War, interned in Japan in 1914. The publication of newspapers for prisoners of war by camp administrations in the interests of propaganda and indoctrination became widespread in the second half of the twentieth century. At that moment newspapers published by prisoners of war themselves were not so numerous. In November 1914, after the siege and capture of the German fortress in Qingdao, about 4,600 German prisoners of war were sent to Japan. During the First World War, 16 camps were established in Japan for German prisoners of war interned from Qingdao. The relatively mild regime of the Japanese camps allowed German prisoners of war to engage in business and publishing activities, study, play sports and music. In the Tokushima and Bando camps, prisoners of war, on their own initiative, organized printing houses and published the newspapers “Die Baracke”, “Tokushima Anzeiger”. Newspapers published information about events at the front, as a rule these were reprints from Japanese, English or American publications; essays, stories and poems written by prisoners of war themselves; regional notes on the history, culture and customs of Japan; scientific articles on geology, geography, agronomy, philology. A small amount of materials were also produced showing the internal daily life of the camp, the features of its organization and regime. Newspapers of prisoners of war of Japanese camps 1914-1918 represent a unique historical source on the history of the First World War.

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