Of the 132,142 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) taken by Japan in World War II, 27 percent died compared to 4 percent of Germany's. The brutal treatment of the POWs is well documented and is still controversial due to unfulfilled demands for apology and compensation. Here, readers learn in excruciating detail what these POWs experienced based in large part on their memoirs and diaries. It is a grim story about the art of survival and the nightmare of war.
Why were allied POWs treated so inhumanely? Race was certainly a major factor. And, only four months after the British surrender of Singapore on Feb. 15, 1942, the war Japan started with a string of lightning successes had already become a lost cause. The debacle at Midway involving the loss of four Japanese aircraft carriers was the beginning of the end. The logic of supply lines, desperation and fanaticism took a heavy toll on the POWs. They were considered subhuman chattel precisely because they surrendered and were treated accordingly. Asians toiling alongside them also died and suffered in far larger numbers, exposing the realties of Pan Asian liberation.
Of the 7,000 Australians and British of F Force who worked on the notorious Railway of Death near Sonkurai, Thailand, 44 percent died. The death rate of the British POWs was a staggering 60 percent, although less than 2.5 percent for officers.