In 1937, Japan started a war against China, in search of more resources to expand its empire. In 1941, during World War II, Japan attacked America which is when the Allies (Australia, Britain etc.) then declared war on Japan. Before long the Japanese started extending their territory closer and closer to Australia and started taking surrendering troops into concentration camps where they were starved, diseased and beaten. When they were captured, one survivor reports that they were told ‘You are the guest of the Japanese you will be spared but not your country. We are going to conquer the world, annihilate your people, and every household will have a white slave.’ (www.riv.conz). In 1942, groups of people were taken from all of the camps and sent to work on the Burma-Thailand Railway. In 1864 the Geneva Convention was formed internationally. The Convention laid down rules concerning the treatment and protection of prisoners during wartime. The Japanese did not follow this Convention as they continuously mistreated many prisoners including Australian troops/soldiers and civilian prisoners. The Japanese saw the prisoners in camps as people who surrendered, therefore they were considered weak and cowardly because of a belief that the Japanese held that soldiers should die out respect for their emperor and country, known as the Bushido Code. A medical officer at the time was told by a Japanese commander, ‘You are not our equals; you are our inferiors...Some Japanese will die in the making of this railway. POW’s will also die. You have spoken of the Geneva Convention and humanity. In present circumstances these things do not apply.’ (Iggulden, 2009, p.22) In 1949 the rules of the Geneva Convention were reinforced international... ... middle of paper ... ... succeeding weeks, largely as a result of this calculated brutality.’ (Iggulden, 2009, p.22) Some people died when the Allies continuously bombed the railway, unaware that their own people were working on it and creating more work for them to do. The Burma-Thailand Railway was a place where prisoners were sent to work during their time in captivity. The Japanese treated the prisoners they held captive horribly. In doing this they ignored the rules of the Geneva Convention set up many years previously and they forced most prisoners to work on the Burma-Thailand Railway where they were starved, diseased or beaten to death. The Japanese officials did not supply the camps with enough food or medical equipment to help enough of the sick and injured prisoners survive and became responsible for the deaths of over 2,700 Australians during a period of only 12 months.
During World War II American soldiers who were caught by the Japanese were sent to camps where they were kept under harsh conditions. These men were called the prisoners of war, also known as the POWs. The Japanese who were captured by the American lived a simple life. They were the Japanese internees of World War II. The POWs had more of a harsh time during World War II than the internees. While the internees did physically stay in the camps longer, the POWs had it worse mentally.
Towle, Philip, Margaret Kosuge, and Yoichi Kibata, Japanese Prisoners of War. London: Hambledon and London, 2000.
Many people were treated very unfairly during war. In “Unbroken”, Phil and Zamperini were 2 american soldiers who were captured by the Japanese in war. They were beaten by the soldiers very unfairly there. In Sophia's War, Sophia's brother William was captured in war and also held captive by the British. An d Sophia's dad was try to avoid the british army as he tried to make it home to his family. During war, prisoners and colonists consequences were unfair based on what they had done.
This is exactly why the war became so brutal. Atrocities that were unthinkable to Americans became reality with just enough racial discrimination and propaganda. The Japanese did everything they could to promote and prove to themselves that they were the master race and all other races were just outsiders, some human and some nonhuman. Americans believed most nonwhite races were so inferior they were comparable to species less than human. Stereotypes, propaganda, and prejudice caused the Americans and the Japanese to decrease to worth of the lives of their enemies,; and therefore justified their brutish
America’s well–entrenched racism against Asians resulted in enhanced levels of brutality against Japanese soldiers, when compared to the other enemy soldiers they encountered during World War II. Legislation in the United States demonstrated racism against Asians for decades. Asian immigrants and citizens fought these discriminatory rulings, only to receive opposition against their plight. Persistent racial discrimination towards the Japanese caused a sense of resentment of Japanese soldiers in the United States military. During several campaigns, American General Infantry displayed ruthlessness against Japanese conduct of war.
During WWII, many Japanese-American citizens were imprisoned. They were imprisoned for being from the Japanese decent. There was no evidence to convict these people but they still were imprisoned. Many Japanese came to the West Coast, which caused Americans some paranoia. Americans thought that the Japanese might be terrorists in disguise. In February of 1942, President Roosevelt ordered Americans of Japanese to be sent to concentration camps which were located in various areas of the United States. There were many aspects to the imprisonment of the Japanese-Americans such as their life before coming to the camps, the executive order 9066, and what it was like being in the concentration camps.
World War II officially began in the late 1930's and Japan had joined at that time, but it wasn't the entire battles that made the war famous. What made it famous exactly? It was something that showed the world Adolf Hitler's true colors, something that was rumored to be used by America in World War II, and it was feared by all who saw it, or worse, walked into it. Even know it was Germany's concentration camps that were ruthless, Japan's POW camps were just as brutal, and in some cases, even worse.
At this time, Japan was in the Far East, and Asia was in turmoil. Imperial Japan invaded China and various other territories in 1937, which made them a real strong ally for Nazi Germany.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Japanese camps were a place where people were treated as less than nothing. The guards took great pride in dehumanizing all the POWs that were within their camps. This could be seen in a variety of different actions that the guards took. Japanese guards treated the different POWs as less than human and took great joy in making them act like animals.
In only a week of battling the Japanese, Singapore, the “Impregnable Fortress” had fallen. Around 80,000 Australian and British and European soldiers became Prisoners of War (POW).
They viewed all 90,000 Chinese Prisoners of War (POW) as less than human and unworthy of living. The elimination of Chinese POW began after they were all transported to remote locations. Japanese soldiers directed bayonet practice on live prisoners, decapitated them and displayed their detached heads as souvenirs while they proudly stood among maimed corpses . Other Chinese POWs were shot down by machine-guns or soaked with gasoline and burned alive. The Japanese encouraged the higher ups to inflict as much pain as possible to “[toughen] them up for future battles” . Some soldiers can be seen in photographs and films smiling while they conduct these inhumane acts. After mutilating the POWs, the Japanese soldiers then focused on the women in
POWs had to work for food at Changi. Men were made to load ammunition onto the ships. If they did not do this, they didn’t get any food, simple. Prisoners were also made to clean the sewers that were damaged as a result from the attack on Singapore. If prisoners were too sick to work for their food, they would rely on others who could share with them. Sharing such small rations of food became a way of life and mate-ship at
In Hillenbrand’s book, Unbroken, Japanese POW camp director Watanabe was exceptionally brutal in his treatment to the prisoners. “Watanabe beat POW’s everyday, fracturing their windpipes, rupturing their eardrums, shattering their teeth, and leaving men unconscious” (Hillenbrand 243). On most Zamperini’s accounts there were clear violations of the Geneva Convention, including Article 26 which is that food and water should be in enough quantity. World War II alone, millions of POWs were captured and millions were killed in the hands of their captors. A prison camp in Changi, Japan men were left unattended to their diseases and injuries. “At Changi, we were hungry and sick, and men began dying, but the Japanese usually left us alone” (historynet.com). Japanese prison camps were known for having brutal and terrifying prison camps where thousands of men were killed. These camps would force the prisoner to do hard manual labor and they were not given the proper nutrients from the rare food that they were given to
The Japanese leaders had different methods of killing that were instructed to the soldiers. However, the prisoners of this “City of Blood” soon found their liberation and their justice was served. The Japanese saw China as the place to spread their imperial and expansionist objectives. A rough estimate of 300,000 Chinese men and women died in the six weeks after December 13, 1937 (Jones). Around 20,000 women from ages 8 to 70 were raped by Japanese soldiers (Scarred).
Perceiving mainland Asians(would orientals be a better or worse term?} as being below them, and all occidental and African peoples being even further below them. The Japanese actions are, by modern standards, universally unacceptable and a hindsight horror, but what would their atrocities look like if we altered our perspective to match those that committed them. The nigh genocide of the coastal Asian countries would look less horrible, and more like controlling the population, or the experimentation done by unit 731. To the Japanese these weren't human rights violations, but population control or simple animal testing, which drastically reduce the severity of their actions. Keeping in mind that Japan was, at this time, trying to find its place in the world, breaking a long history of on again off again isolationism. One could argue that Japan at that time was akin to a child who hadn't learned right from wrong yet. Now having moved past its supremely regimented hierarchical way of life that developed with Bushido in the prewar period, the prior analogy becomes more feasible, as they were simply trying to apply their own methodology to a world entirely foreign to said