Prisoners of the Japanese During World War II

By Joe Dalesandro

In ‘the western world’, surrender can be seen as honorable. The Japanese saw surrender as the ultimate shame. Their brutal treatment toward POWs during World War II reflected this philosophy.

The Japanese often violated the rules of treatment for POWs found in the Geneva Convention.

A British POW is pictured here about to be beheaded by a Japanese soldier.

Prisoners of the Japanese were kept in huts such as these in Malaysian POW camps.

The Japanese would force the POWs to sign non-escape clauses in order to justify executing them if they tried to escape, despite the fact that the Geneva Convention made this illegal. The open nature of this hut is deceiving, as it actually encouraged POWs to attempt a futile escape.

Of these, one in three died from starvation, work, punishments or from diseases for which there were no medicines to treat.

Over 140,000 Allied Prisoners of War were held captive in Japanese Camps.

POWs of the Japanese were forced to work on the Siam-Burmese Railroad.

The conditions in the jungle were horrible and facilitated the spread of cholera, wet beriberi, tropical ulcers, malaria and more.

A map of the Siam-Burmese Railroad is pictured on the left. The construction of the railroad was very important to the Japanese military in order to transport supplies.

On the right is a picture of POW Han Samethini’s leg taken in January, 1944. Samethini was taken to the Chungkai POW camp in Thailand after suffering from malnourishment and tropical ulcers in his leg while working on the Burma Railroad. Han also contracted Malaria, and only survived due to the kindness of fellow POWs who managed to scrounge up enough quinine and food to keep him healthy.

Pictured on the left are Prisoners of War at a Japanese Camp in Sumatra. There were 21,580 American POWs held captive by the Japanese during World War II. 7,107 (33%) of them died in captivity.

Pictured on the right is the infamous Bataan Death March. On April 9th, 1942, after over 3 months of brutal fighting, 76,000 Filipino and American soldiers surrendered at the Battle of Bataan. 64,000 Filipino soldiers and 12,000 Americans - then were forced to endure a 60 mile hike of torture as they were moved into captivity.While there is no way to know exactly how many people died on the march, historians approximate that roughly 1 out of every 4 (25%) POWs died.

The POWs were deprived of food and water, beheaded, shot, stabbed with bayonets, beaten with rifle butts, disemboweled, and were killed for helping other struggling POWs.

Prisoners of the Japanese were taken aboard “hellships,” like the Arisan Maru, and transported to Japan. The Japanese would not mark the prisoner vessels intentionally. As a result, allied forces would unknowingly sink ships with their own troops aboard. According to Japanese figures, of the 50,000 POWs they shipped, 10,800 died at sea. Of all POWs who died in the Pacific war, one in every three was killed on the water by friendly fire.

The Arisan Maru was torpedoed by an American submarine on October 24, 1944. There were 1,800 POWs aboard and 1,795 died. This Hell Ship sank in the South

China Sea making it the worst naval disaster in the history of the United States.

References Title Slide 1:

Maps of World.com. (Designer). (2000). Japan flag. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.mapsofworld.com/flags/japan-flag.html

Slide 2: pow-wwii.com, . (Photographer). (1998). Execution of a pow. [Web]. Retrieved from http://images.google.com/images?q=pows%20of%20the%20japanese&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=vi

Slide 3: Erickson, James W. (Designer). (2009). POW hut. [Web]. Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/powsofthejapanese/_/rsrc/1233976290161/config/app/images/malaybalayhut.jpg

Slide 4: History on the Net.com. (Designer). (2000). Japanese prisoner of war camps. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW2/images/japan_map.gifDaws, Gavan. (1994). Prisoners of the Japanese: Pows of World War II in the Pacific. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company.

Slide 5:Han Samethini Remembered, . (Producer). (1998). Green hell. [Web]. Retrieved from http://hansamethini.blogspot.comHan Samethini Remembered, . (Producer). (1998). Burma railway. [Web]. Retrieved from http://hansamethini.blogspot.com/

Slide 6: www.perthone.com/1pow.htm, Initials. (Designer). (1998). Burma railway. [Web]. Retrieved from www.perthone.com/05%20Burma%20Railway%20Map.jpg

References Slide 7:

Han Samethini Remembered, . (Producer). (1998). Tropical ulcer. [Web]. Retrieved from http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hLUqH17anPY/SyHCTVvVd5I/AAAAAAAABeI/M3TmBidhJxM/s400/Partly+Healed+Ulcer+AWM+P01433.028.jpg

Slide 8: Han Samethini Remembered, . (Producer). (1998). Sumatra pows. [Web]. Retrieved from http://hansamethini.blogspot.com/2009/04/10-prison-camp-musician-december-1944.htmlDaws, Gavan. (1994). Prisoners of the Japanese: Pows of World War II in the Pacific. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company.

Slide 9:PBS, . (Producer). (2007). Bataan death march. [Web]. Retrieved from www.pbs.org/.../images/objects/search/S0757.jpg Himchak, Elizabeth M. (1999). Bataan project. Retrieved from http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/st/~ehimchak/POW_camps.html

Slide 10:Tarver, Paul. (Producer). (2010). Hellship map. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.paultarver.com/index.php/a-prisoner-of-japan-a-pows-own-story/#Daws, Gavan. (1994). Prisoners of the Japanese: Pows of World War II in the Pacific. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company.

Slide 11Jorgensen, Ruth E. (Producer). (2008). Arisan maru. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.west-point.org/family/adbc/hellship_files/nissyo.jpeg