Prisoners Of War: Pows In American History

(1 “Andersonville” 2) The only source of water for the prisoners came from Sweetwater Creek which flowed through the prison and later became a den for disease and filth. During the fourteen months that Andersonville stood, it held the estimated number of 45,000 Yankee soldiers—13,000 of which perished. (2 “Andersonville” 1) Many of those who escaped death did not like to speak of their time spent in those wretched conditions.

The camp was built by slave labor on 16 acres, later expanded to 26 acres, and was formally called “Camp Sumter” by the Confederacy. Andersonville was designed to imprison up to 10,000 “overflow” prisoners from elsewhere, but its inmate population climbed to 3 times that amount leave to about 33,000 prisoners by the end of the summer of 1864. Furthermore, its physical design was fatally flawed to begin with. In addition to the absence of any system for waste disposal within the camp, a creek flowing through the camp delivered upstream waste from the military camp where Andersonville guards were stationed. By the end of the war, 13,000 Andersonville prisoners (30 percent of the camp’s population) had died from a variety of diseases such as

During the World War II, both the Japanese-Americans and American POWs must suffer the challenge of being “invisible”. Facing this challenge, both Japanese-American POWs and Americans are struggling to resist being “invisible”. As a result, there are many efforts being made to make both the Japanese-Americans and American POWs invisible. Instead of giving up, the Japanese-Americans and American POWs are fighting back.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the internment of Japanese Americans on the West coast of the United States. On going tension between the United States and Japan rose in the 1930’s due to Japan’s increasing power and because of this tension the bombing at Pearl Harbor occurred. This event then led the United States to join World War II. However it was the Executive Order of 9066 that officially led to the internment of Japanese Americans. Japanese Americans, some legal and illegal residents, were moved into internment camps between 1942-1946. The internment of Japanese Americans affected not only these citizens but the

Anne Frank was a European Jew and Monica Sone was a Japanese American. Monica told her story of Japanese American prisoners being held captive in America, in the excerpt “Camp Harmony”. How is it possible for American citizens during times of war to be taken into captivity while in the U.S.?

officials eventually began to recruit these internees into the American army. Not only was WWII a war about political alliances and geographical sovereignty, but it was also a war about race and racial superiority throughout the world. Propagating this idea, Dower (1986) argues, “World War Two contributed immeasurably not only to a sharpened awareness of racism within the United States, but also to more radical demands and militant tactics on the part of the victims of discrimination” (War Without Mercy: p.5). In elucidating the racial motivations and fallout from WWII, Dower helps one realize the critical role that race and racial politics played during the war and are still at play in our contemporary world. An analysis of this internment process reveals how the ultimate goal of the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans and the United States’ subsequent occupation of Japan was to essentially “brainwash” the Japanese race into demonstrating allegiance to America.

It is believed to have left them to endure horrific conditions and treatment as a result of Japanese cultural ideologies. So within this essay it has been proven that; prisoners suffered different acts of punishment, laws under the geneva convention were not followed by Japan and Japan found prisoners dishonorable and didn’t give them any respect. All of these points have proven that Australian prisoners of war had endured horrific conditions and treatment as a result of japanese cultural

The houses these “Relocation Centers” provided for the prisoners were, “tarpaper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind (Relocation 4).” “A family of five or six would normally occupy a single room twenty-five by twenty feet (Relocation 4).” These innocent American civilians were forced to share bathrooms with over 250 other inmates of the camp. The meals served in the mess halls were, “planned at an average cost of not more than 45 cents per person, per day (Relocation 4).” Evacuees, as the government would call the “prisoners”, were employed to run everything in the camp from the mess halls to the farmlands and even the hospitals, getting paid a mere 16 dollars a month for a 44-hour week (Relocation 4).

The camps that the Japanese-Americans were taken to had the worse conditions imaginable. “More than 120,000 Americans of Japanese Ancestry were incarcerated in 10 camps scattered throughout the Western United States during World War II” (Children of the Camps Project 1). Detainees spent many years in these camps. They were locked behind barbed wire fences, and armed guards patrolled the camps. The conditions were comparable to the Jewish camps in Eastern Europe. Entire families lived in quarters that were poorly constructed and horribly cramped. These areas were also unbearably cramped and unclean. There was also no hot water for dishes or showers in the living quarters. In addition, lice was a huge problem in the internment camps. These camps and the laws that our government passed against the Japanese community were atrocious. The United States experienced a terrible tragedy when Pearl Harbor was attacked. However, the American government had no right to make these innocent Americans prisoners of war. During the 1940s and 1950s the Japanese

American soldiers were important during WWII, and people should know about all the horrors they have witnessed. America quickly joined the war after the Pearl Harbor attack from Japan, and from this America had become a part of the Allies. When the Germans attempted to hide all evidence of the camps, they ramped up the killing pace, leaving behind an atrocity for the soldiers to find. Soldiers mostly came across the camps on accident or a survivor found them, but when they were notified they had no

Allied POW camps is a place where soldiers have been captured by an enemy during war are kept as prisoners until the end of war but are treated unfairly some POW camps treat there prisoners nicer some get put through harsh conditions some of the camps in United Kingdom or Europe were better then other camps. Like some of the camps had tennis and good meals for there prisoners and others only got rations of food a day to where they had to save half of it to be able to eat more Incase they didn’t get any food some would beat you and some would kill you for not doing something or resisting some of the prisoners could bribe the guards and get more food then other. There was a lot of hard labor work happening between males and females some people

By the end of World War 2, Japanese camps had become progressively brutal. Prisoners of war endured more than what anyone could imagine. Richard Beck best describes what many were feeling during their time spent in prisoner of war camps,

While in the camps, soldiers experienced many difficulties throughout the day. “Camp provided a soldier’s first test of survival, especially for men from rural precincts. With little understanding of sanitation, camps were notoriously nasty abodes; lice were rampant, and dysentery, often caused by impure drinking water, killed more men than enemy bullets.” (Denmark) Consequently, many soldiers died because of the disease and filth. Not only did the men have to worry about disease, but some also had to worry about racism and discrimination. Black troops suffered discrimination in the camps. “Although many served in the infantry and artillery, discriminatory practices resulted in large numbers of African-American soldiers being assigned to perform non-combat, support duties as cooks, laborers, and teamsters.” (African-American Soldiers During the Civil War) As a result, black troops received less money and had to pay for objects and penalties that white troops did not. African-American prisoners of war underwent much harsher treatment compared to other ethnicities that also became prisoners of war. Evidently, soldiers of various races and ages faced many major complications while in the army

Prison camps was one of the main hardships most soldiers faced during the war, some would call it hell. You would get captured from the war and be brought to a horrid place.

I am quite sure that everyone knows about prisoners of war. Not necessarily in America, but in other countries, some are taken to secret prisons and interrogated. If they don’t give up the information wanted, they are tortured. This isn’t very effective seeing as one could easily make up information and not be tortured any longer, but people still thought torture was the best way to get what they wanted. It was extremely horrifying. It was even scary to read about. I cannot imagine anyone going through was some of these war prisoners have gone through. One story in particular, though, stood out to me. It is that of Bashar Joudallah (50) and his cousin, Mohammad (23) from Nablus, Israel, who were tortured for thirty-eight days straight.