the idea is to survive.

November 4, 2021 10:14 PM

As of 2021, How many World War 2 P.O.W.s (Prisoners of War) are still alive?

also allied p.o.w.s alive would help.

posted by clavdivs to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

According to the Pentagon's Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, there are currently 83,204 unaccounted for U.S. personnel, including 73,547 from World War II, 7,883 from the Korean War, 126 from the Cold War, 1,642 from the Vietnam War, and six from Iraq and other recent conflicts.

From Google.
posted by LOOKING at 2:51 AM on November 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

In Australia, as far as I can tell, there is one fella who was actively alive 18 months ago. He enlisted at 15yrs in 1941 and was interred by the Japanese in Sandakan in 1942. Of the 22,000 Australians held by the Japanese only 14,000 arrived home.
posted by Thella at 2:59 AM on November 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

Are you looking for POWs who are still POWs who are still alive (it seems unlikely that there'd be any, but who knows), or people who were POWs during WW2 who were released and are still alive today?
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:41 AM on November 5, 2021

Best answer: In the US, about 16 million served, and about 94,000 were POWs; that's about 0.6%. About 240,000 WWII era veterans survive, implying that there are something on the order of 1,400 US POWs alive. If you can't find actual data, doing that kind of exercise for other countries would give you a very rough sense of magnitude.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:20 AM on November 5, 2021 [5 favorites]

If you can't find actual data, doing that kind of exercise for other countries would give you a very rough sense of magnitude.

Except prisoners of war were treated terribly, often starved and riddled with disease. They are not likely to live as long as returned soldiers who had reasonable rations and a medical crew.

Fewer than 3000 of the 600,000 Australians who served during WWII are believed to still be alive. I doubt more than half a dozen of those are PoWs.
posted by Thella at 4:22 PM on November 5, 2021

Response by poster: POWs and MIA are not the same in this instance. For clarification, P.O.W is a solder/ sailor who was a prisoner but was released this includes all Theatre's.apologies for not being more concise, spot on.
"1,400 US POWs alive. If you can't find actual"



my guess was 1200 to 1600 based on that data.
thank you Thella wonderful and we know of one which is best so far. and your right, alot suffered the Prisoners stigma and bad health as well as all the other demons. On the other hand, a few went to show business or DJ, local t.v.
posted by clavdivs at 9:36 PM on November 5, 2021