A nonprofit Japanese organization said Sunday it has found at the U.S. National Archives a list of names of some 6,000 Japanese soldiers who became prisoners of war in Asia and the Pacific regions during World War II and later died. Members of the association that promotes peace and reverence for World War II casualties said the finding may help them to collect the remains of such soldiers and return them to family members.

According to the group in Saga Prefecture, the document was compiled in 1952 by a U.S. government body and it gives the names of about 6,000 Japanese POWs in Roman alphabet, the dates of their deaths and the names of gravesites. The 6,000 POWs include those who died in Hawaii, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Japan’s Okinawa Island. The document also includes a map showing the location of gravesites of some Japanese POWs on Leyte Island in the Philippines. NPO members plan to collect the remains of such soldiers on the island.

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