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Japanese POW and internment camps for civilians were hell holes. People died in large numbers from sarvation and disease. If the Allies had not reached them when they did, many more woukd have died. The Japanese treatment of these people was a war crime and could rightly be considered murder. But here we are talking about outrighr murder, by shooting, bheading, burrying alive, burning, and other methods. This occurred on a large scakle in China. There were no POW camps for the Chinese, they were simply killed. The Westn POWs were treated differently.
Some were killed, but most were interned, but under dredfull conditions. Civilian internees were subjected to the same dreadful conditions. Many did not survive. In the final year of the War, orders went out to kill the internees.
The Japanese captured millions of Chinese soldiers. There were, however, no POW camps or Chinese to release after the War. The Japanese simply killed them all. We are not sure who decided this or id orders to this ffect were ever issued. We just know that they were killed. And there does not appear to have even been an effort to use them for slave labor, jist mirder on a vast skill with unbelievable brutality..
After the fall of the Mariabas (July 1944), Japanese officuals began to have sobering thoughts about the War which was noe nearing tghe Home Uskands. They new taht bonbin wiukd soon begin,. These thiughts included the Emperor. Prime- Not only was evidence found in Tokyo offices issuing the orders, but in the iverseas officesd receiuving the orders.
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ritish signals sergeant Jack Edwards survived Japanese POW camps. After liberation he joined British and American war crimes investigating teams. They searched the remains of the Kinkaseki copper mine--POW Branch Camp No. 1, Formosa (Taiwan) (1946). The detailed records of German industrialists were captured by rapidly moving Allied invasion forces after they crossed the Rhine. The Japanese industrialists had more time to destroy or hide their incriminating records. [Holmes, pp 129, 135-136.] Among the burnt debris in the camp offices, Edwards found 15 handwritten transcriptions of broadcast orders dated April 1942 - August 20, 1945 from command headquarters in Tokyo. [Holmes] One of those documents was orders from the Japanese vice-minister of war to all POW camp commanders in the occupied territories and home islands (August 1, 1944). The orders were apparently in response to queries from the head of the POW administration on Formosa. At the time Formosa was believed to be a possible target for an American invasion force. [In fact President Roosevelt on July 1944 had ended a debate between the Army and Navy and chose the Philippines as the next American target.] The Taiwan commander asked for clarification as to circumstances under which he should act on his own, anticipating an American invasion and a breakdown of communications with headquarter in Tokyo. The Vice-minister authorized camp commanders to kill all the POWs they held if "an uprising of large numbers cannot be suppressed without the use of firearms" or "when escapees from the camp may turn into a hostile fighting force" and "not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces (figure 1)." [Holmes, pp. 115-116.] This order is of course preposterous. The POWs by this time were emaciated and in poor health. Some were starving. The idea that these unarmed men could pose any kind of threat is absurd and both the officers who issued it and those who received it understood this fully. What this order was to kill the POWs before they were liberated so they could not testify against the Imperial Army--especially specific individuals. It was in essence authorizing a bloody cover up. An entry in the journal of the Japanese headquarters at Taihoku on Formosa (February 26, 1945) ordered 'extreme measures' to be taken against POWs in urgent situations:" Whether they are destroyed individually or in groups, or however it is done, with mass bombing, poisonous smoke, poisons, drowning, decapitation, or what, dispose of the prisoners as the situation dictates. In any case it is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces." [Daws, pp. 324-325.] An official copy of the murder order was later found in the files of the Japanese Governor General of Formosa, Richiki Ando. [Holmes, p. 121.]
Not only have these murder orders been found, but there are several instances in which they were actually carried out. It was something very much on the minds of American commanders. The Los Ba�os Raid on Luzon may have saved the POWs there (February 1945).
An interesting question is why there were not more mass executions. A reader writes, "Maybe these camp commanders actually believed the propaganda that Japan was still winning the war and expected these civilians and POWs to die from starvation and disease." Perhaps and the Emperor's announcement no doubt surprised many. Perhaps they were worried about what might happen to them if Japan lost the War. The commanders in the Philippines would have had no illusions after the Americans landed (October 1944/January 1945).. And I think there was a degree ofv hesitatiin as regards Westeners, aftervall they just killed Chinese, there were non camps exceot for Westerners in China. At any rate it is an interesting question that we have not seen addressed in the literature.
Daws, Gavin. Prisoners of the Japanese: POWs of World War II in the Pacific (New York: Morrow, 1994).
Felton, Mark. "Operation Zipper Thelast WW II invasion," War Stiries (August 25, 2021).
Holmes, Linda Goetz. Unjust Enrichment: How Japan's Companies Built Postwar Fortunes Using American POWs (Mechanicsburg, Pennsslvania: Stackpole Books, 2001).
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Created: 6:59 PM 12/13/2013
Spell checked: 7:23 PM 12/15/2013
Last updated: 7:23 PM 12/15/2013