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

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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