The prisoners taken by the Western Allies were held in generally good conditions in camps located in Australia, New Zealand, India and the United States. Those taken by the Soviet Union were treated harshly in work camps located in Siberia.
The POWs suffered frequent beatings and mistreatment from their Japanese guards, food was the barest minimum, and disease and injuries went untreated. Although the POWs finally received Red Cross packages in January 1944, the Japanese had removed all the drugs and medical supplies.
On the work site guards would throw jagged stones at prisoners working in cuttings below and beat anyone they thought was working too slowly. Sometimes they simply laughed at the misfortune of their captives. The Japanese military police, or Kempetai, was particularly feared by prisoners.
Indeed, they endured years of not only malnutrition and starvation, disease and general neglect -- resisting all the while -- but also torture, slave labor and other war crimes. Many POWs were murdered outright by their captors. In fact, only a little more than half of them ever saw home again.
During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.
Many of the women and children were held in prison camps in terrible conditions and forced on death marches. Some women were killed on sight and others were raped, beaten, and forced to become sex slaves. Much of the book showcases the words of the people who lived through this period.
Crucifixion was a form of punishment, torture and/or execution that the Japanese military sometimes used against prisoners during the war. Edwards and the others were initially bound at the wrists with fencing wire, suspended from a tree and beaten with a baseball bat.
Australian authorities established “internment camps” to prevent its citizens from assisting the Axis powers (Germany, Japan and Italy) and to accommodate POWs transferred Down Under during the war. They also were believed to placate public opinion.
They were accused of ill-treatment of Indian PoWs on way to and at Bebelthuap Palau, causing death to many by imposing severe hardships and beatings, and also executing Sepoy Mohammed Shafi of the Indian Army by beheading for allegedly trying to escape; eight others were beaten to death for allegedly stealing sugar ...
Of the 22,376 Australian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, some 8,031 died while in captivity. After the end of the war, War Crimes Trials were held to investigate reports of atrocities, massacres and other causes of death.
These stereotypes served to conflate Nikkei-Australians with the soldiers in the Japanese military that Australia witnessed during wartime, who were regarded as “subhuman beast[s]” and “vermin” (Saunders 1994, 325–27).
Others, often starved and treated brutally, worked for months under shellfire close behind German lines. In camps in Germany conditions were better, but prisoners suffered increasingly from shortages caused by the British blockade. Many survived only because of regular Red Cross parcels.
Starting in late 1946 the USSR began to repatriate the POWs, freeing 625,000 in the following year alone. The Stalin regime declared in the spring of 1949 that just 95,000 Japanese prisoners remained in Siberia and they would be sent home by year's end (many would not actually return until well into the 1950s.)
Germany's 'Escape-Proof' Castle POW Camp Actually Had the Worst Record for Escapes. Situated just south of Leipzig, Germany, lies Colditz Castle. During World War II, it was used as a prison camp by the German Heer.
Until they were freed, Soviet prisoners of war were subjected to forced labor under conditions worse than civilian forced laborers or prisoners of war from other countries. Other Soviet prisoners of war volunteered to serve in German auxiliary services called Hilfswillige.
Following the war the prisoners were repatriated to Japan, though the United States and Britain retained thousands until 1946 and 1947 respectively and the Soviet Union continued to hold as many as hundreds of thousands of Japanese POWs until the early 1950s.
Incredibly, some American POWs managed to survive the Japanese massacre at Camp 10-A near Puerto Princesa, Palawan on December 14, 1944. At nightfall some of those who somehow survived wandered into the jungle and others attempted to swim across Puerto Princesa Bay.
The conditions at the prison were appalling, and prisoners were frequently tortured. American POWs bore this suffering until the end of the war. With the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, the American withdrawal had a firm end date. As such, the North Vietnamese released the POWs they still held.
Prisoners were rarely given any fat and all were continuously hungry. More fortunate prisoners were occasionally fed barley, green stew and meat or fish once a month while most survived on a diet that consisted mainly of soya beans, rice and seaweed.
Japan's early successes in the Far East during the Second World War resulted in over 190,000 British and Commonwealth troops being taken prisoner. Japanese military philosophy held that anyone surrendering was beneath contempt. As a result, their treatment of captives was harsh.
Employment conditions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were generally treated with less fairness than other Australians, despite the important support they provided. At times, they were expected to work for room and board only. At others, they were denied their entitled pay.
A typical meal was a thin broth of rice and vegetables. The prisoners were paid a small wage with which they supplemented this diet.
August 10, 2000: Consul-General of Japan in Hong Kong Itaru Umezu said: "In fact, Japan has clearly and repeatedly expressed its sincere remorse and apologies, and has dealt sincerely with reparation issues.
As a highly conformist society, the Japanese military virtually controlled Japan's destiny. Their belief in a master-race convinced many of their divine right to rule and enabled them to carry out massacres without remorse.