Prisoners of the Empire: Inside Japanese POW Camps 067473761X, 9780674737617

A pathbreaking account of World War II POW camps, challenging the longstanding belief that the Japanese Empire systemati

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English Pages 336 Year 2020

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Prisoners of the Empire: Inside Japanese POW Camps
067473761X, 9780674737617

Author / Uploaded
Sarah Kovner

Table of contents :
Contents
Introduction: A History Both Familiar and Strange
1 From Avatar of Modernization to Outlaw Nation
2 Singapore: A World Gone Topsy-Turvy
3 The Philippines: Commonwealth of Hell
4 A War of Words
5 Korea: Life and Death in a Model Camp
6 Captivity on the Home Front
7 Endings and Beginnings
8 Undue Process
9 Prisoners of History: Renegotiating the Geneva Conventions in the Wake of War
Conclusion: Never Again, and Again
Notes
Archival Sources
Acknowledgments
Index

Citation preview

PRISONERS OF THE EMPIRE

PRISONERS of the EMPIRE Inside Japanese POW Camps

Sarah Kovner

Cambridge, Massachusetts | London, England 2020

For Lily

Copyright © 2020 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First printing Cover photos: (top) Myanmar, Soft_Light/Getty Images Plus; (bottom) Prisoners in Bataan, 1942, photo by Keystone/Stringer/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Cover design: Jill Breitbarth 9780674250192 (EPUB) 9780674250208 (MOBI) 9780674250215 (PDF) Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-0-674-73761-7 (alk. paper)

Contents

Introduction

1

A History Both Familiar and Strange 1

From Avatar of Modernization to Outlaw Nation

2 Singapore

13 43

A World Gone Topsy-Turvy 3

The Philippines

67

Commonwealth of Hell 4

A War of Words

5 Korea

96 120

Life and Death in a Model Camp 6

Captivity on the Home Front

137

7

Endings and Beginnings

157

8

Undue Process

177

Prisoners of History

195

9

Renegotiating the Geneva Conventions in the Wake of War

Conclusion

208

Never Again, and Again Notes 221 Archival Sources

307

Acknowledgments

309

Index 311

Lake Baikal

SIBERIA

Karafuto MONGOLIA

MANSHŪKOKU (MANCHUKUO)

Hokkaido

Mukden

Sea of

Konan (Hŭngnam) Japan

Beijing Jinsen (Incheon)

Nanjing C

H

I

N

South

THAILAND

China

Bangkok

FORMOSA (TAIWAN)

Santo Tomas Luzón Cabanatuan Bataan Mindoro

Manila Los Baños

PHILIPPINES

SULU

Mindanao

SEA

North Bornea

Su ma

tra

Changi D

CELEBES SEA

Sarawak

SHŌNAN-TŌ (SINGAPORE) U

Borneo T

C

H

E

Zentsuji

Kyushu

Palawan

MALAY STATES

A

N

Shikoku

PHILIPPINE SEA

Sea

FRENCH INDOCHINA

A

PACIFIC OCEAN

Hainan

Rangoon Burma-Thai railway

P

East China Sea

Hong Kong

BURMA

A

Tokyo

Moji Fukuoka Nagasaki

Shanghai

A

J

CHŌSEN (KOREA)

Yellow Sea

Honshu

Keijō (Seoul)

S

T

I

N

Japanese Empire with discussed camps and capitals.

D

I

E

S

MANSHŪKOKU (MANCHUKUO)

Number of POWs transported

Konan