Of those, five camps detained Japanese prisoners of war and civilian internees. Loveday in South Australia, Tatura in Victoria, and
Life in internment camps
They were set up in reused buildings, such as the old jails at Berrima and Trial Bay in New South Wales. The largest camp during World War l was at Holsworthy, west of Sydney. During World War II, internees were kept in repurposed facilities, including: Long Bay jail, New South Wales.
POW Camp Groups and Civilian Internment Camps Outside Japan
Outside Japan proper, the army authorities took formal responsibility for establishing and operating prisoner-of-war camps in Borneo, Burma, China (including Manchuria), Hong Kong, Java, Korea, Malaya, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand.
From June 1940, German internees were joined by Italians and, in December 1941, by Japanese Australians. In September 1942 internment of enemy aliens reached its peak, with almost 7,000 people behind barbed wire in 18 camps around southern Australia, from Marrinup in the west to Brighton in Tasmania.
Throughout World War II 7,000 Australian residents including 1,500 British nationals with foreign origins and 8,000 people from overseas were held in PW & I Camps in Australia. At their peak of occupancy Australian camps held over 12,000 people. These were mostly men but also some smaller numbers of women and children.
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.
The reasons for the Japanese behaving as they did were complex. The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) indoctrinated its soldiers to believe that surrender was dishonourable. POWs were therefore thought to be unworthy of respect.
However, nations vary in their dedication to following these laws, and historically the treatment of POWs has varied greatly. During World War II, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany (towards Soviet POWs and Western Allied commandos) were notorious for atrocities against prisoners of war.
Over 22,000 Australian servicemen and almost forty nurses were captured by the Japanese. Most were captured early in 1942 when Japanese forces captured Malaya, Singapore, New Britain, and the Netherlands East Indies.
Sergeant (Sgt) Hajime Toyoshima (left), the first Japanese prisoner of war (POW). Toyoshima was the pilot of a Japanese Mitsubishi Zero aircraft, A6M2 Zero, tail code BII-124, from the Japanese imperial navy aircraft carrier Hiryu, who participated in the first air raid on Darwin.
For British and American prisoners, Stalag IX B was one of the worst camps in Germany. Conditions were appalling from the start and continued to deteriorate as the war progressed. The first transport of American prisoners arrived in late December 1944. By January 24, the camp had 4,075 Americans, held in 16 barracks.
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.
As a result, the Japanese Navy established Ofuna Transitory Prison Camp in Ofuna, Kanagawa Prefecture. This was a special camp where the POWs captured by the Navy were held before they were transferred to Army control. The total number of the POWs who were imprisoned in the camps in Japan was around 36,000.
On 5 August 1944, Japanese prisoners of war (POWs) housed in the detention camp in Cowra, New South Wales staged a breakout. Armed with improvised weapons including baseball bats and sharpened mess knives, they stormed the perimeter fences and overcame the machine gun posts.
During the war almost 7000 people were interned by the Australian government in the interest of national security. The government considered the interned as 'enemy aliens'. Initially, the interned were men, women and children who were born in countries that were at war with Australia.
United States Army Colonel Floyd “Jim” Thompson, the longest held prisoner of war (POW) in American history, and his wife, Alyce, were products of the idealism of post-World War II America. When Thompson was shot down and captured, they began a journey that changed them forever.
Floyd James "Jim" Thompson (July 8, 1933 – July 16, 2002) was a United States Army colonel. He was one of the longest-held American prisoners of war, spending nearly nine years in captivity in the forests and mountains of South Vietnam, Laos, and North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Bergenfield, New Jersey, U.S.
The longest-held enlisted POW is Bill Robinson from East Tennessee. Don Dare spoke with the retired Air Force Captain about his years in captivity and a pilot who is still MIA. Shortly after being captured, a North Vietnamese militia woman escorted Robinson, in what he learned years later was a propaganda photo.
The US, no doubt about it. Various POWs inquired whether there was a procedure for them to become US citizens while they were still imprisoned. A POW camp containing German soldiers was built in a small town near Chicago in WWII. The prisoners were sent out of the camp each day to work at local businesses.
The Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan) were some of the most systematic perpetrators of war crimes in modern history.
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.
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.
Following the war, the victorious Chinese Communist government began repatriating Japanese prisoners home, though some were put on trial for war crimes and had to serve prison sentences of varying length before being allowed to return. The last Japanese prisoner returned from China in 1964.
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.