The senior officers generally tried to keep as accurate a record as possible of the names and places of burial. These greatly assisted the search teams. Some POWs volunteered to stay on and assist in this process. In the book RAILWAY MAN, we learn that even one of the KempeiTai translators volunteered to assist in this effort and was greatly affected by the experience.
By 1948, all of the remains of the US POWs were re-repatriated to their families or reburied at the Punchbowl at Pearl Harbor [see the Gallery below].
Here are a few examples of the photos of that search and maps that the POWs managed to keep as to the whereabouts of the burial sites:
While thousands of the Australian, British and Dutch POWs lie buried in the 3 CWGC cemeteries, all the remains of the US POWs were repatriated to their families by 1948.
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Documentation of the graves search by the Australian search teams:
Grave markers of 131 POWs who perished as a result of their time on the TBR *:
KODAK Digital Still Camera 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 
Frank Dopson Ellis, Section C 403 
HPIM0503.JPG 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 
*Missing are CSM(AA) Kenneth BLAIR; AMM2c Bartow PARISH and USMC Pvt James WILSON for whom no grave photo could be found.
The following died as POWs on Java, Japan or Borneo:
died on Java 
died on Java 
died on Java 
died on Borneo 
died in Japan 
died in Japan