Poor Living Conditions In Japanese Prisons

The poor living conditions were the fundamental factor contributing to the psychological issues of the Japanese prisoner of World War Two inmates? To what extent is this true?

Early in World War Two the Japanese made a swift move on much of Asia. They set out to take anything they could and made huge progress into the war. They took many prisoners of war in the early stages of their assault. Once Java collapsed and was forced to surrender it was only a matter of time before the Japanese expanded their prisoners of war and camps on what was already established. The living conditions of these camps were a crucial factor to the psychological issues that every inmate faced, however, they were not the sole reason for these people’s problems.
The inhuman treatment, lack of food, movement and separation of soldiers from loved ones also had key roles to play in the mindset of the Japanese prisoner of war camp inmates.
Living conditions were terrible for those forced to endure a Japanese prisoner of war camp. The ground was all that was provided for Dutch prisoners of war, a small patch or dirt was elected to each family inside of the camps and that was the way it stayed for your entire stay.1 Each Dutch inmate was allowed to bring some of their key belongings in a small duffel pack.2 Many chose to bring pillows and small items like toothbrushes. However these items didn’t last long and inmates soon found themselves carrying a bag full of feathers and leaves to use as a pillow. The camps were always moving a bit closer to a main town or further away.3 As a result they used quick pop up tents, 4this was a big problem as they had little shelter from the conditions and winter was a hard struggle for everyone. The plain disregard to human life shown by the Japanese in the way they allowed these people to live was appalling and an obvious weight on people’s minds.
Another strain on prisoners mind was the Japanese ruthless torture and punishment.
Each small camp carried three specific samurai swords used to behead or seriously injure an inmate. In one particular camp in Malang two beheadings were witnessed by a small camp of about thirty five people. Thirty of these people were children and all shared one women who had taken it upon herself to protect the kids. A Japanese soldier in charge of distributing food felt sorry for the mother and children, “he would often give us more food then what he should”5 and many of the children quickly befriended him. However he was soon found out by his fellow soldiers and beheaded the next day. Every child was forced to watch or threaten to be punished themselves. To a child of only six years old it is obvious to realise that witnessing this kind of treatment to even their own brethren would have an effect on their state of mind.
A dog is a man’s best friend. In the Japanese prisoner of war camps dogs were always a common sight6, but you never seen the same dog twice. A stray may walk into the camp giving excitement to all the children that live inside but the weekly or at rare times monthly decapitation was never far away and just like the time before it all the children were forced to watch someone or an animal that they had to clang onto for some kind of love, be killed in front of their scared
eyes.

Pure starvation was equally as common as disease in Japanese prisoner of war camps. A basic diet including three cups of rice and a small bowl of soup was all that was given on the average day7. Soldiers in the Japanese homeland would be given squid or crab on special occasions8. Nevertheless surviving on this kind of food is almost impossible and inmates were reduced to mere twigs. A soldier that was hungry would often sing out “I’ll give you rice and soup on Wednesday night for that rice now”9. A lack of food meant soldiers were always in pain and food was always on their minds.
Life was always on the move for the prisoner of war camp inmates. The Japanese had captured roughly 96,300 women and children and enslaved them into 200 camps10. The treatment given to these was such that one in every five did not survive to see the end of the war11. However more people died while walking from their temporary home to a new patch of ground. The Japanese moved around the country areas as to avoid capture from the allied forces. The Japanese generals moved there camps inland once news of the war had ended. “We knew something was wrong when we moved further inland in four months then what we had for the past two years”12. The struggle of a camp population is witnessed in the last three months of capture as inmates become restless when they are made to move and it seems their minds are almost broken.
The living conditions of a Japanese prisoner of war camp were simply terrible, however they were not the fundamental factor contributing to the psychological issues of the people trapped inside. What they saw and were made to endure scared them forever, and scars don’t just fade over time. What these poor people lived through will be with them forever and there on going pain is due to the combination of living conditions, inhuman treatment, lack of food, movement and separation they witnessed in the Japanese prisoner of war camps.

Bibliography
Diary, 2001, 1st edn, CHRISTIANUS, ROBERTUS, ANDREAS MARIA BUNDER, 13 cross road kingswood.
Nelson, H 1990, Prisoners of war Australians under Nippon, 1st edn, Abc, NSW.
Dairy, 2001, 1st edn, ELISABETH, HEDWIG, HENDRICUS MARIA, ANDREAS, N/A.
N/A, N Australian War Memorial n.d., Australian prisoners of war: Second World War prisoners of the Japanese, version N/A, computer application, accessed 14 June 2014, .