The Japanese treatment of POWs in WWII was brutal. For example, when the Allied (American and Filipino) forces surrendered at Bataan, they were forced to march 65 miles from the Bataan Peninsula in the south to San Fernando in the north. The men were not given enough, if any, food and water on the journey. More than 70,000 prisoners started the Bataan Death March, but more than 10,000, mostly Filipinos, did not reach the end, whether through exhaustion, starvation, injury, illness, or deliberate murder by the Japanese soldiers (Roland and Shannon 72). Any prisoner who fell was immediately killed. When they finally reached Camp O’Donnell, conditions were just as bad. A short time later they were joined by the soldiers who surrendered at Corregidor (Bailey).
The island of Corregidor, in the entrance to Manila Bay, had an underground bunker (Malinta Tunnel) which held offices and hospital beds. Before General MacArthur left the Philippines, he used the Malinta Tunnel as Allied headquarters. My uncle was one of the soldiers in the Malinta Tunnel when Corregidor fell. The surrender of Corregidor under Lt. General Wainwright meant that the last Allied stronghold in the Philippines was lost (Bailey).
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Because the Japanese considered surrender to be cowardice, they treated their prisoners very harshly. At Camp O’Donnell, Cabanatuan, and Palawan, as well as other camps in the Pacific islands, China and Japan, many soldiers died of dysentery, malaria, scurvy, pellagra, beriberi, tropical diseases, and starvation (Roland and Shannon 76). They were given very little food and water, and what they did get was dirty water and worm-infested rice. Others were sent to forced labor camps in the Philippines, Japan, and China on Japanese “Hell Ships,” so called because the prisoners were jammed together so closely they often could not even sit down. Some ships stayed in the harbor for up to a month before they put out to sea, due to American destroyers in the vicinity (Lavin). The conditions in these ships were so bad it is surprising that anyone survived at all.
A particularly horrific incident occurred at the camp on the island of Palawan. The prisoners had built themselves wooden shelters over trenches for safety during air raids. On December 4, 1944, the prisoners were inside the shelters when the Japanese doused the shelters with gasoline and lit them with flaming torches. When the men tried to escape the shelters, the Japanese shot or clubbed them to death (Lavin).
An example of a labor camp was Camp Kawasaki, where POWs such as my uncle worked in the Kobe shipyards. The camp was infested with rats, fleas, and lice. The weather was extremely cold, but the prisoners were not given warm clothes for a long time. Many men froze to death; others died of starvation, diseases, or ill-treatment (Roland and Shannon 69).
Beginning early in 1945, American and Filipino soldiers liberated POW camps, moving towards Japan. The Great Raid on the camp at Cabanatuan was planned in secret since it was feared that the Japanese would execute all the prisoners as the Allies came closer. A small force went behind Japanese lines and rescued the POWs, accompanying them back to American territory (Wright). Later, after Japan surrendered, the Allies liberated prisoners from the camps in Korea and Japan itself. More than 36,000 POWs were held in this area, primarily in labor camps. The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers issued directives to the Japanese government demand immediate release of prisoners (MacArthur). The Japanese were required to provide all documents related to POWs, both survivors and deceased. Many of the prisoners desperately needed medical attention, and all of them needed good food and clothing appropriate to the climate. The Allies made plans to feed, clothe and house the thousands of men who were about to be free again (MacArthur).
Works Cited
Bailey, Jennifer L. The Philippine Islands: The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II. 1945. Web. 25 March 2015. < http://history.army.mil/html/books/072/72-3/CMH_Pub_72-3.pdf>
Lavin, Ed. “World War II in the Pacific: Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines.” The Pioneer. 2008. Web. 26 March 2015. < http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txrha/f-hil05a.htm>
MacArthur, Douglas. Reports of General MacArthur: MacArthur in Japan. Volume 1 Supplement. Office of Military History. 1966. Web. 26 March 2015.
Roland, Charles G., and Harry S. Shannon. “Patterns of disease among World War II prisoners of the Japanese: hunger, weight loss, and deficiency diseases in two camps.” Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences 46.1 (1991): 65-85.
Wright, John MacNair. Captured on Corregidor: Diary of an American POW in World War II. McFarland, 1988.
