Prisoners of the empire : inside Japanese POW camps / Sarah Kovner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kovner, Sarah (Sarah C.), 1973- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, Japanese.

World War, 1939-1945.

Prisoners of war--Europe.

Prisoners of war.

Prisoners of war--United States.

Prisoners of war--Australia.

Prisoners of war--Asia.

Japan--History--1926-1945.

Japan.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (337 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Harvard University Press, 2020.

Summary:

A pathbreaking account of World War II POW camps, challenging the longstanding belief that the Japanese Empire systematically mistreated Allied prisoners.In only five months, from the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 to the fall of Corregidor in May 1942, the Japanese Empire took prisoner more than 140,000 Allied servicemen and 130,000 civilians from a dozen different countries. From Manchuria to Java, Burma to New Guinea, the Japanese army hastily set up over seven hundred camps to imprison these unfortunates. In the chaos, 40 percent of American POWs did not survive. More Australians died in captivity than were killed in combat.Sarah Kovner offers the first portrait of detention in the Pacific theater that explains why so many suffered. She follows Allied servicemen in Singapore and the Philippines transported to Japan on “hellships” and singled out for hard labor, but also describes the experience of guards and camp commanders, who were completely unprepared for the task. Much of the worst treatment resulted from a lack of planning, poor training, and bureaucratic incoherence rather than an established policy of debasing and tormenting prisoners. The struggle of POWs tended to be greatest where Tokyo exercised the least control, and many were killed by Allied bombs and torpedoes rather than deliberate mistreatment.By going beyond the horrific accounts of captivity to actually explain why inmates were neglected and abused, Prisoners of the Empire contributes to ongoing debates over POW treatment across myriad war zones, even to the present day.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Maps

INTRODUCTION. A History Both Familiar and Strange

1 FROM AVATAR OF MODERNIZATION TO OUTLAW NATION

2 SINGAPORE

3 THE PHILIPPINES

4 A WAR OF WORDS

5 KOREA

6 CAPTIVITY ON THE HOME FRONT

7 ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

8 UNDUE PROCESS

9 PRISONERS OF HISTORY

CONCLUSION: Never Again, and Again

Notes

Archival Sources

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674250192

0674250192

9780674250215

0674250214

OCLC:

1198930380