Examples Of Japanese Brutality In Ww2

Japanese Brutality In World War II Japanese Prisoner of War (POW) camps are an example of how the majority of people are uneducated about some of the unspeakable horrors that have happened in the world. Many have heard of the notorious World War II (WWII) Holocaust and the terrors that happened in the concentration camps there. Japanese POW camps during WWII were not widely publicized to be barbarous, but former prisoners have said that the camps had a reputation for dehumanizing, brutalizing, and systematically eliminating their captives. Japanese disciplinary action was cruel, harsh, and painful beyond imagination. Unfortunately, more than 140,000 men found this out firsthand (“World War Two”). Prisoners were severely injured at times from the beatings that were insured upon them (Hillenbrand 265). If a man ever fell during a

The POWs worked from sunrise to sunset with only one day off every ten days. Out of 61,000 men who were slaves, 13,000 died on or because of the job (“World War Two”). Guards would assign pointless assignments for the POWs to perform. One such burden was to have the men carry huge bags of coal up and down hills just to tire them out. They had the POWs build their airfields and mine their coal. They would also charge the POWs to farm their fields and load supplies on and off ships (Hillenbrand). Demeaning tasks were also authorized in the camps. One of the most popular ones was cleaning out the “outhouse” if it could be called that. They would have to scoop the waste into a bucket and heave the bucket outside of camp. The rancid smell stayed with them for days afterwards. Some camps also dabbled in sex slavery and raped many women and even some men (“Japanese POW Camps”). Radio interviews were also a common way to break a man’s spirit. If the prisoners refused to cooperate then the Japanese would either torture them into doing it or they would send them off to a punishment camp