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English Pages 336 Year 2020
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