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. …show more content…
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
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. …show more content…
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