Sergeant (Sgt) Hajime Toyoshima (left), the first Japanese prisoner of war (POW). Toyoshima was ...

Places	Asia: Netherlands East Indies, Ambon, Pulau, Ambon Oceania: Australia, New South Wales, Cowra Oceania: Australia, Northern Territory, Bathurst Island Oceania: Australia, Northern Territory, Darwin Oceania: Australia, Northern Territory, Melville Island
Accession Number	P00022.001
Collection type	Photograph
Object type	Black & white
Physical description	Black & white
Place made	Australia: Northern Territory, Bathurst Island
Date made	27 February 1942
Conflict	Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright	Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Sergeant (Sgt) Hajime Toyoshima (left), the first Japanese prisoner of war (POW). Toyoshima was the pilot of a Japanese Mitsubishi Zero aircraft, A6M2 Zero, tail code BII-124, from the Japanese imperial navy aircraft carrier Hiryu, who participated in the first air raid on Darwin. During the raid on Darwin his plane was damaged and he made a crash landing on Melville Island. He was disarmed and captured by aborigines who then took him to Bathurst Island and handed him over to Sgt Leslie J Powell (right), 23 Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, who, using Toyoshima's service pistol, escorted him into captivity. Powell had been sent to maintain demolition installations on the island and was unarmed. Toyoshima was later to die in the breakout of Japanese prisoners from the Cowra POW camp on the night of 04/05 August 1944. The bugle he blew to signal its start is held in the Australian War Memorial collection. He posed as Tadao Minami, claiming to be a Sergeant Pilot flying from Ambon to Darwin, and under this name was allocated the first number (PWJ 910.1) for a Japanese POW captured on Australian soil. His was the first intact Zero captured by the Allies.