1 Yen - P.O.W. Canteen Ticket

These canteen tickets were issued by Japanese-administered POW camps in Taiwan to Allied prisoners — primarily British, Australian, and Dutch servicemen captured after the fall of Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. The scrip system was partly designed to satisfy the requirements of the 1929 Geneva Convention, which obligated detaining powers to provide canteen access and pay for officer labor. Whether those obligations were meaningfully honored is another matter entirely.

The handstamp is the only authentication device, applied at the individual camp level, which is why surviving examples vary considerably in ink color and stamp clarity. Forgery within the camps was documented — prisoners occasionally produced counterfeit scrip to obtain extra provisions.

S&B#2065 is among the most historically charged pieces in any Pacific War scrip collection.