Many soldiers that were in World War II will never forget the things that they have seen or been through, especially the people who were prisoners of war. They have gone through things that most people will never have to encounter, or things people would never want to encounter. They can be considered some of the real heroes of the Second World War.
World War II officially started for people in the United States the day after December 7, 1941, when the Japanese Empire surprise attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This attack caused President Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare war on Japan. We (United States) joined the side of the Allies, which included the United Kingdom, France, Nationalistic China, the Soviet Union, and others. The Axis, or Central Powers, included Germany, Japan, Italy, and some smaller states.
A prisoner of war is defined in the original War Claims Act as “…any regularly appointed, enrolled, enlisted, or inducted member of the military or naval forces of the United States who was held as a prisoner of war for any period subsequent to December 7, 1941, by any government of any nation with which the United States has been at war subsequent to such date.” A total of 16.1 million troops served in World War II, and of those 16.1 million, about 130,000 were captured and became prisoners of war. Of the approximately 130,000 American prisoners of war, 27,000 or more were held by Japan, while Germany held almost 94,000 U.S. prisoners of war. Before the war, US citizens lived normal lives and did things like they usually did. But as the war progressed, some of those places became battlegrounds. About 4,700 US citizens were captured by Germany, while Japan captured and interned about 14,000 US citizens. (The Issue of Compensation) These two countries were the major POW holding countries for the Central Powers.
Japan didn’t hold the most POW’s, but they were probably the most brutal on the soldiers that they did hold. The Bataan Death March was one of the most known instances of Japan’s brutality towards US prisoners of war. This occurred after the fall of Bataan in the Philippines. The Japanese military force marched almost 80,000 starving, sick, and injured US and Filipino troops over 60 miles to prison camps at Camp O’Donnell in April of 1942. The trip took 6 days to complete, and during these 6 days, Japanese soldiers robbed, beat, tortured, and killed marchers at will. The leader of the troops on this march was Lt. General Masaharu Homma. After the war, he was held responsible for Japanese actions and was arrested, tried, and executed by a firing squad in April of 1946. Estimates vary on the deaths on this Bataan March. Some say that 5,000-10,000 Filipinos were killed, plus a maximum of 650 Americans. Others estimate that 10,000 prisoners, 2,300 of them American, died or were killed. There were quite a few camps in Japan, to list a few: Beppa, Burma, Camp O’Donnell, Roku Poshi, Sendai Camp, and camps in Taiwan.
One German camp had a camp area of 300 x 200 yards, surrounded by two barbed wire fences. It contained a large, three-story, stone building with concrete barracks inside. It also had a theatre, sports field, chapel, infirmary, canteen, huts for classes and several unused barracked fenced off by barbed wire. (American POWs) As one can see, conditions didn’t seem too harsh. Camp leaders weren’t too worried about escapes, and they really didn’t have to be. Escapes were very rare. But that wasn’t the case on March 24th, 1944, which became known as “The Great Escape”. The Stalag (Luft) III became famous for these 80 Allied soldiers’ actions. They had dug a tunnel with the nickname “Harry” well before the date they left. But on the 24th, the men made their way through the tunnel. Only 15 men managed to escape to free territory, and all of the others were killed by German soldiers. (Second Generation Research) This was the most successful escape attempt that was ever attempted. Some camps that were in Germany were: Dulag Luft, Lazarett IX-B, Oflag7b, and many Stalag Lufts.
Conditions in most camps were pretty much similar, some being harsher than others. Most weren’t given a lot of food, but enough to survive off of. They were usually fed rations sent by the Red Cross weekly. Sometimes clothes would be issued, but normally not, especially in German war camps. If anyone got sick, American medical officers provided adequate medical care. In basically all POW camps, the soldiers were forced to do manual slave labor. They performed labor in mines, factories, steel mills, bridges, and anything else they needed to be done. They also had medical experiments operated on them, which could include cruel and unusual punishment. After the war, war crimes afflicted upon Allied POW were brushed aside by Japan and Allied governments during the headlong rush to stop Soviet expansion in Asia. (Japan POW Camps) At the time, they felt it was more important to stop Hitler than to worry about those things. Overall, conditions weren’t too horrible on the soldiers, they probably could have been much worse.
Survival rates differed greatly between Japanese camps and German camps. In German camps, the survival rate was just a little bit over 1% (94,000 soldiers, about 1,200 died). But in Japan’s camps, the survival rate was well over 1%. Their rate was 40% of the soldiers in their camps died. (27,000 held, 11,000 died) (The Issue of Compensation). If you had to be a prisoner of war, where would you want to be one? Germany or Japan? We think we would choose Germany, but that’s just us.
Many soldiers that became prisoners of war were able to prevail and return back to the United States. They returned to lovingly open arms in their hometowns. But did people think of them as heroes? We can’t answer that question, but we sure think they are.