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. Although no one knows the official beginning of Japan's POW-prisoner of war-camps, they will always be remembered for their high death rates. When looking at the death rates of POWs in the more brutal countries, it is Germany who had the highest …show more content…
One of the most renowned camp guards named Mutsuhiro Watanabe-more commonly known as "The Bird," by his captors-was infamous for senselessly beating prisoners and was so bad that some of the prisoners strategized a plan to kill him. How does everyone know this much about him? Simple, he had tortured Louie Zamperini every single day, making him the biggest part in Louie's World War II experiences. Upon meeting Zamperini, Watanabe had already despised Louie due to him being an Olympic athlete and he was absolutely ruthless with him. Louie had to hide himself from Watanabe to find a sense of safety. "'After the first few days in camp." Louie said, 'I looked for him like I was looking for a lion loose in the jungle.'" (247) But when The Bird found him, there was no turning back. On came the kendo sticks, baseball bats, and his own fists. But he was only one of many other savage guards. Sueharu Kitamura, "The Quack," or, "The Butcher," was next, but the way he got his nickname, "The Butcher," is very morbid. "Fascinated by suffering, he forced sick and injured captives to come to him for "treatment," then …show more content…
Others were so bad that even at the sight of something with even some relevance to the camps, they would become these violent people who would scream and go ballistic, the men who had originally entered the camps would exit them never being the same, but some of them found hope, some found God, others found help from family and friends, one of them even built an apartment complex for war veterans, they got their lives back, a few of them had even better lives then as opposed to before the war itself. The war was over, and the former POWs could
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
What were the Japanese internment camps some might ask. The camps were caused by the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1942 by Japan. President Roosevelt signed a form to send all the Japanese into internment camps.(1) All the Japanese living along the coast were moved to other states like California, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona. The camps were located away from Japan and isolated so if a spy tried to communicate, word wouldn't get out. The camps were unfair to the Japanese but the US were trying to be cautious. Many even more than 66% or 2/3 of the Japanese-Americans sent to the internment camps in April of 1942 were born in the United States and many had never been to Japan. Their only crime was that they had Japanese ancestors and they were suspected of being spies to their homeland of Japan. Japanese-American World War I veterans that served for the United States were also sent to the internment camps.(2)
How would you feel if you were forced out of your home to go to a camp where you shall be incarcerated for an unknown amount of time in an unknown location. You have no idea what will happen to you and your family. Why were you forced into the camps? Because of your ethnicity or beliefs. Japanese internment camps and Holocaust concentration camps both left their hateful marks in the fabric of history. During World War II, the Holocaust concentration camps were located around Central or Eastern Europe while the Japanese internment camps were located in the Western United States. Both types of camps have interesting similarities. However, one must realize that despite this similarities, these camps were very different in many ways. Yet, one thing is certain. We must learn more about this dark time in history in order to prevent such acts of hatred and paranoia from ever happening again.
How do you judge the atrocities committed during a war? In World War II, there were numerous atrocities committed by all sides, especially in the concentration and prisoner of war camps. Europeans were most noted for the concentration camps and the genocide committed by the Nazi party in these camps. Less known is how Allied prisoners were also sent to those camps. The Japanese also had camps for prisoners of war. Which countries’ camps were worse? While both camps were horrible places for soldiers, the Japanese prisoner of war camps were far worse.
World War II was one of the most important wars in history. It featured multiple countries at constant conflict with each other. There were several battles that occurred in this 12 year long war. An example of two of the battles would be the Battle of Britain in the European theater of war, and the Attack on Pearl Harbor in the Pacific theater of war. Only one of these wars saw victory, while the other caused great devastation to the American military.
In 1942 Roosevelt signed the Executive order 9066 which forced all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. They were forced out no matter their loyalty or their citizenship. These Japanese-Americans were sent to Internment camps which were located in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. There were ten camps all-together and 120,000 people filled them (2009). The immigrants were deprived of their traditional respect when their children who were American-born were indorsed authority positions within the camps. In 1945 Japanese-American citizens with undisrupted loyalty were allowed to return to the West Coast, but not until 1946 was the last camp closed.
Living conditions in these camps were absolutely horrible. The amount of people being kept in one space, amongst being unsanitary, was harsh on the body.
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Many Americans were afraid of another attack, so the state representatives pressured President Roosevelt to do something about the Japanese who were living in the United States at the time. President Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066 which allowed local military commanders to designate military areas as exclusion zones, from which any or all persons may be excluded. Twelve days later, this was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast. This included all of California and most of Oregon and Washington.
Several were killed by military guards posted for resisting order of their command. Their cultural and economic growth was ruined within a blink of an eye. They were only allowed to bring one luggage to wherever they were going and leave the rest behind for someone else to sell or take over. I was one of the many children interned at Heart Mountain camp in September 1942. After being interned first at Santa Anita racetrack — yes, the horse racing track in Arcadia —-I was removed by train to Heart Mountain. I still remember the soldiers with fixed bayonets standing between each car to discourage prisoners from moving from car to car. (Debra
At the camp, the Jews were not treated like human. They were force to do thing that was unhuman and that dehumanized
The Holocaust was perhaps the most dramatic and well known atrocity of World War II because of the sheer number of deaths and crimes that had to be put on trial in Nuremburg. Millions upon millions of Jewish men, women, and children were executed and experimented on in dozens of ways. The Russians assaulted hundreds of German towns on the way to Berlin, trying to end the war. When the Russian soldiers would go through the towns of Germany, “They raped every German girl from eight to 80,” a famous quote from the book Berlin: The Downfall 1945 by Antony Beever. If the women resisted rape by hundreds of men, they were tortured to death only to have their lifeless corpses raped. The Japanese would take POWs and citizens of captured towns and execute them in masses, burn them, gas them, and kill them in any way possible. The Japanese war crimes can be compared to that of the Germans, but the only difference would be the sheer number of people that the Nazis killed. Even the American soldiers committed war crimes, but the main ones were executing the SS soldiers found in liberated Death Camps such as Auschwitz.
They starved to death and many got infections that were not taken care of properly. They were beaten for the simplest things and they were used as experiments. They were taken into gas chambers where they were tricked into thinking that they were taking baths. They lost their friends and family they were torn away from their children, mostly they were never seen again. In the final months of the war they were taken on marches killing off even more of them.When they came to their old homes ( even though some ceased to exist) they were still hated they were beaten and killed by rioters. Many were lost, but in the end there were survivors people that made it through this torturous place. “ No tiger can eat me no shark can beat me... even the Devil would lose his teeth biting me I feel it ; I will get out of this place.” - Fritz Loehner.( Aretha)
World War II was a time of deliberate hate among groups of innocent people who were used as scapegoats. Japanese-Americans were persecuted due to the fact that they looked like citizens of Japan, who had attacked the United States on December 7th, 1941 at the naval base, Pearl Harbor. This hatred toward the group was due to newspapers creating a scare for the American people, as well as the government restricting the rights of Japanese-Americans. The Japanese-Americans were mistreated during World War II for no other reason than being different. These men, women, and children were loathed by the American public for looking like the people of the Japanese army that had attacked the United States. These people were only hated by association, even though many had come to the United States to create a better life for their family.
The mental inhumanity was so bad that most prisoners thought of suicide and some even committed it. Along with this was the pain and torture the prisoners felt from the physical inhumanity which resulted in deaths of over 50% of the inmates who stayed there. The total effect of both of the camps is shown throughout the inhumanity brought about there. The fact that inhumanity was able to cause the deaths of just about 6,000,000 people shows how easy it is for it to hurt other humans.
Japan was one of the major powers of Axis Powers during the World War II. From 1937 to 1945, Japan started a series of wars, and resulted in millions of casualties along the way. Japanese battlefield consists of three parts: China, Pacific and Southeastern Asia. Japanese started these wars because they wanted to gain resources and war advantages for their own country. Japan committed crimes against humanity during their wars, which means they neglected human dignity and degraded human value by humiliation. During the Sino-Japanese War, the Pearl Harbor Attack and wars in Southeastern Asia, Japan, in pursuit of self-interest, violated human rights and committed crimes against humanity.