Original Item: One-of-a-Kind. This is an unusual U.S. WWII Axis Prisoner of War uniform jacket, consisting of a repurposed American GI summer-weight khaki coat that was over-dyed a dark blue and prominently stenciled PW in white on the front and back. Garments of this general type were issued to enemy prisoners held in the United States, where the War Department was responsible for providing clothing and other necessities under the 1929 Geneva Convention. The jacket is now missing all of its buttons and shows substantial wear and damage, but the large contrasting prisoner markings remain its most important historical feature.

As World War II raged on the other side of the globe, Allies, such as Great Britain, were running short of prison space to house POWs. From 1942 through 1945, more than 400,000 Axis prisoners were shipped to the United States and detained in camps in rural areas across the country. Some 500 POW facilities were built, mainly in the South and Southwest but also in the Great Plains and Midwest.

At the same time that the prison camps were filling up, farms and factories across America were struggling with acute labor shortages. The United States faced a dilemma. According to Geneva Convention protocols, POWs could be forced to work only if they were paid, but authorities were afraid of mass escapes that would endanger the American people. Eventually, they relented and put tens of thousands of enemy prisoners to work, assigning them to canneries and mills, to farms to harvest wheat or pick asparagus, and just about any other place they were needed and could work with minimum security.

The Prisoners of War sent to the United States were still clothed with their enemy uniform in which they were captured. Having to clothe Prisoners of War was yet another issue the U.S. Government has to contend with. The solution was to issue enemy POWs with reissued GI garments, obsolete garments, or factory defect garments. These items were occasionally dyed a different color, or simply stenciled with “P.W” (Prisoner War) on the front and back.

This particular garment is a GI issue Summer-weight khaki A-Blouse reissued to an Axis Prisoner of War. The coat was dyed a dark blue. Note that the jacket was stenciled with white “PW” on the front pockets and on the back of the jacket. These are seldom found items today, as most were destroyed at the end of WWII following the release of the prisoners. The jacket is missing all of its buttons.

During WWII, the United States brought enormous numbers of captured Axis servicemen to camps on the American home front. The National Park Service records more than 425,000 prisoners of war in the United States, including Germans, Italians, and Japanese, housed in hundreds of main camps and branch facilities across the country.

The United States was obligated under the Geneva Convention to furnish POWs with adequate clothing. Article 12 specifically required the detaining power to provide clothing, linen, and footwear and to issue work clothing when required by the nature of the labor.

American military clothing could consequently be issued to captured personnel when required. The National Archives preserves wartime photographs documenting Japanese prisoners being processed and issued GI clothing, demonstrating the broader American practice of clothing captured enemy personnel from U.S. stocks.

Many Axis POWs held in the United States were also employed to alleviate severe wartime labor shortages. The National Park Service estimates that as many as 265,000 POWs were leased for nonmilitary labor, particularly in agriculture, food processing, and related industries. Prisoners received compensation under the rules governing POW labor, generally in camp scrip rather than ordinary American currency.

The familiar image of POWs working on American farms therefore has a substantial historical basis. At Papago Park in Arizona, for example, hundreds of German prisoners were sent to pick cotton, and thousands were expected to be available for agricultural work throughout the state during 1944.

The jacket also retains an unusual piece of its later storage history. Several empty wasp cocoons or mud-nest remains are still attached to the garment. These were present when the jacket was recovered from storage and have intentionally been left in place. They are no longer occupied. While they have no connection to the jacket’s wartime use, leaving them undisturbed preserves the exact condition in which the garment was found and avoids additional stress to the already aged fabric.

Condition overall is heavily worn and incomplete. All buttons are absent, there is visible fabric damage and deterioration, the dark blue dye has aged unevenly, and the jacket bears evidence of poor long-term storage. The prominent white PW markings nevertheless remain readily visible and give the garment its principal historical significance.

The strength of this piece lies in its physical alteration from an ordinary American military garment into clearly identifiable prisoner clothing. The dark blue over-dye, repeated white PW stencils, missing buttons, service and storage wear, and surviving traces of its later storage environment make it an unusual artifact of the Axis prisoner experience on the American home front. Rather than representing combat equipment, it illustrates the immense logistical system required to house, clothe, guard, and employ hundreds of thousands of enemy prisoners within the United States during WWII.

Approximate Measurements:
Collar to shoulder: 8.5"
Shoulder to sleeve: 24"
Shoulder to shoulder: 16"
Chest width: 18"
Waist: 18"
Hip: 22"
Front length: 32"