Japanese POW art

[Charley]

Help! Just joined so bear with me. My wife's father was an MP and was stationed at an unknown location guarding Japanese POW's, supposedly as WWII was ending. He obtained some incredible pictures of Japanese ladies, that were drawn on pieces of bedsheets, by trading cigarettes for them. He has passed away, so we are unable to obtain any more information. I will attempt to attach photo's of 3 of them here. One has an inscription/writing/artists signature in Japanese. My wife put them in the frames. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? I've searched the internet for weeks without any luck. Also, can anyone translate the writing? Any help would be much appreciated. To me, they are fascinating. They are in excellent condition. The wife say's they belong in the family, but if it turns out they are rare and valuable, who knows........
Thanks!

[Monshoki]

I'm sorry that I can help you to provide any info, but I sure appreciated the pictures. I noticed that even at the post-war era, the influence of manga (the Japanese comic) can be felt. I am a manga lover, by the way ^_^

may I ask, is there any clue, when the pictures was made?

[Charley]

They were done at the end of WWII - 1945/1946. Can you read the name or know of anyone that can? I'm not familiar with "Manga" & found it interesting after your reference to it. Is that really what these are supposed to be? If so, that's as far as I've gotten with info on them. Do you know of others like these?

[sandyd]

Hi Charley,
I saw your post about your father in law's pictures on bedsheets done by Japanese POWs. My mothers cousin had at least 4 of these. He told her they were done by Japanese POWs. He was in the Sea Bees in Guam. He passed away and my Mom has them. She had one framed and it is very nice. We have also not been able to find much info. on them and were wondering if you had had any luck after posting this comment. There is also writing on each one and we don't know what it says but would like to. Would appreciate you may have discovered.
Thanks!

[rbminis]

Hi Charley,
I saw your post about your father in law's pictures on bedsheets done by Japanese POWs. My mothers cousin had at least 4 of these. He told her they were done by Japanese POWs. He was in the Sea Bees in Guam. He passed away and my Mom has them. She had one framed and it is very nice. We have also not been able to find much info. on them and were wondering if you had had any luck after posting this comment. There is also writing on each one and we don't know what it says but would like to. Would appreciate you may have discovered.
Thanks!

Hello and welcome to the forum!
If you post clear photos of any writing, (kanji or otherwise) here, there are members that would be happy to attempt to help you.
Ralph.

[Tinhat]

These are really nice, I would make sure you document the family connection. With two of you having similar stuff, maybe this was a common way POWs made some extras. Really interesting, thanks for showing.

[gwooten]

We have the same similar drawings that I got from my Father and he told me the same story about the art. We have been trying for over 7 years to find something out about the drawings we have. I have attached the pics of the drawings I have.

[harryamb2]

beautiful pics.

[rlsapp]

Hello!

I am a graduate student in Historical Administration working on a term project involving these kinds of Japanese POW drawings. I have scoured the internet and museum archives in search of these drawings to no avail. My grandfather brought back some very much like these from the Philippines during WWII. I am incredibly committed in learning as much as I am able to on these sorts of Japanese POW artworks. Would you be able to tell me a more detailed history of these drawings that I may use in a paper? Any information you can offer, even the smallest, will be beneficial. I hope to hear from you soon and I hope that at the end of my research I can then offer the community more information into these amazing pieces of history.

Best,
Rachael

[MAP]

Rachael,

It appears that the original poster of the first set of pictures is no longer active on the forum. Gwooten is new to the forum but appears he has not been around since his post here, but we may hope that he returns. Maybe there are others here who will see this and be able to help.

Welcome to the forum and wish you the best in your research.

Regards,

Michael