To Be Known, You Have To Be Shown. - Jewish Family Service Of Seattle: Fill & Download for Free

RYUKICHI YAMAMOTO WAS JUST ONE of 26 Japanese men captured during the entire Aleutian’s Campaign; a wounded survivor of Attu, a Japanese Alamo on American soil where thousands of his comrades were annihilated or committed suicide. (Below: the last of the charging Japanese lay scattered together on Engineer Hill)Why couldn’t he have been one of the luckier ones posted to Kiska he wondered. One of those lucky thousands of Japanese soldiers who miraculously slipped away under cover of thick fog and the diversion of mysterious phantom radar pips - - God-sent ghost ships that never were - - to return home and fight again?Why couldn’t he have stayed in the fight on Attu long enough to catch up with Colonel Yamazaki and the rest of his comrades in their defiant banzai charge and those last plunging adrenal moments of glorious combat? Though found unconscious, he was deeply ashamed that his wounds were not debilitating.Well… At least he wasn’t his comrade Kitakoshi-san, who had been discovered cautiously entering a mess tent in U.S. fatigues. A hapless cook waved him inside and served up some dehydrated sweet potatoes. The cook assumed the half-starved Asian man was American, one of the Nisei, a translator maybe, and had no idea actual fighting was so close by. Hungry as he was, Kitakoshi couldn’t help staring at the dish; he couldn’t tell what it was. Starving as he was, it looked too disgusting to even try. That confused moment of hesitation and his lack of English suddenly gave him away. Seconds later both men were fighting for their lives. Minutes later the cook was credited with taking one of the very few Japanese prisoners of the entire campaign, and one of the first of the entire war.It pained Yamamoto just imagining Kitikoshi’s utter double-disgrace; being taken prisoner… And by an unarmed cook. But that’s where starvation takes us, doesn’t it?(Below: American cooks, medics, supply specialists after being taken by surprise and overrun… Some fought with shovels, or their bare hands.)Surprisingly, suspiciously, the Americans gave Yamamoto a warm cot and tended his wounds right next to their own wounded soldiers in a heated hospital tent. They fed him more and better food than he had ever been fed as an Imperial soldier. Once stabilized and rested, he was screened, photographed, and finger-printed. Then several days later - - just enough time for him to recover and relax, and to realize he probably wouldn’t be tortured or executed after all, contrary to everything he had ever been taught - - his first interrogation took place.How strange it was, being treated with compassion.That first interrogation was a surprisingly brief session. The Nisei intelligence officer seemed tired and disinterested. It ended with the offhanded mention that Japan had completely abandoned the Aleutians. “Petty lucky”, the interrogator grinned.THE DEAD, THE LUCKY, AND THE IN-BETWEEN…There was the dead, and the lucky, and then there was Sergeant Ryukichi Yamamoto; wounded, left for dead, and captured. Perhaps he was unwittingly lucky because his surviving Aleutian comrades would only rejoin an unwinnable fight.But he was also UN-lucky in that he couldn’t and wouldn’t appreciate that historical fact for years to come.Either way his shameful fate as a prisoner would be a deep dishonor to his family. It felt to him like an un-commutable life sentence of self-disgust. There could never be a return to what he had left behind.But then it comforted him a little bit guessing his family back in Hiroshima would probably decide he died an honorable death after all because the Japanese government never notified families about ‘missing’ or captured men. Then again, much later, he’d learn his family and most of his childhood friends were completely vaporized in an atomic flash, so nothing really mattered anyways.All that self-loathing and Bushido bullshit; such shameful waste of emotions…(Hiroshima…)(Hiroshima in 1948… still a wasteland)He’d also learn by war’s end that many Japanese soldiers never even had his chance to fight. Instead they starved to death, bypassed by the U.S. Navy and stranded on Pacific islands that couldn’t be re-supplied. Other soldiers wouldn’t know, or couldn’t believe, that the war had ever ended. They held out and fought on for years - - decades even - - as long-suffering ghosts of the war.(Below, see Hiroo Onoda who held out in the Philippines for 29 years… How often men build their own prisons, fight their own private wars; cling to lost causes. Why were the Japanese holdouts, men who lived in suspended states of anarchy, pointlessly murdering innocent people years after the war, celebrated back home in Japan as tenacious survivors? )On balance, Yamamoto should have felt lucky, but he didn’t.And later after hearing the actual voice of his dear emperor actually surrendering in a radio broadcast, he couldn’t.[ Above: No longer isolated from the crowds or riding a white horse in uniform, Hirohito is seen by commoners touring the ruins of Yokohama as just a mortal man in February 1946… Albeit one with an Imperial palace and a get-out-of-jail-free-forever card. (TIME Magazine) ]Early on in Yamamoto’s captivity he asked for a knife and was denied.Again and again, contrary to all his training and the words of men he had so deeply trusted and admired, the Americans seemed to kill him with kindnesses. Everything that happened in his prisoner life was just so completely unexpected. Everything he knew seemed wrong. Most of his rules for living no longer applied. Then Japan would lose the war and change almost beyond recognition.Time crawled while he was held on Attu...But then one morning after the usual surprisingly-delicious coffee, and a hot breakfast, Yamamoto and the other two-dozen captives were assembled on Massacre Beach. It was by now some day or another in September 1943, and thoughts inside their jail - - a dark cave actually - - had already and metaphorically been turning to winter. But standing there at water’s edge without any possessions and without warning, they were suddenly and unceremoniously transferred aboard a transport ship, bound some 3,200 miles south for Angel Island off the coast of California.California. Angel Island. The names conjured daydreams of soft warm weather; champagne sunlight and perfumed air. More self-loathing.As the ship pulled out of Massacre Bay, the prisoners were allowed out on the steel deck to smoke cigarettes in the harsh cold wind and take one last ruminating look at Attu from the rail, that most unforgettable and strangely glorious of all once-in-a-lifetime places. The island melted away, slowly receding into the familiar mists as the low overcast merged with the flat grey horizon. The seas built and swelled, and the winds grew to moan and whistle, until the island disappeared, completely and forever. Gone. And it’s history would soon be forgotten. Everyone felt it. So many lost brothers.(The old dock at Massacre Beach…)Up until July 1943, a total of just 10 Japanese prisoners of war had been held in the lower 48 states. In regards to handling them, everything was new, and theoretical. Camp Angel Island, a small mountainous sanctuary in San Francisco Bay, had been an immigration quarantine station before the war. Now it was a temporary military transit center. Upon arrival prisoners were de-loused, thoroughly examined by doctors, treated as necessary, and finally given numbers for processing into the American POW camp system.Throughout Yamamoto’s experience, pains were taken to adhere to the Geneva Convention for the treatment of prisoners of war. The U.S. government insisted on showing Japan their prisoners were treated humanely and with dignity. But it could only be hoped that Americans held by Japan might receive similar treatment; Japan never ratified accords of the 1929 Geneva Convention. In due course, Yamamoto was presented with post cards to inform his family he was all right, and to register his name with the International Red Cross. He refused them though; better to be thought dead than dishonored by captivity. There was at least a little dignity from refusing, and in steadfastly hating the Americans. Why not? He assumed they hated him too.CAMP TRACYNext Yamamoto was forwarded to Camp Tracy just outside of Byron California, yet another step deeper into the strangeness of his war journey. Camp Tracy, once a Victorian-era resort enjoyed by famous athletes and movie stars, and now officially known as “P.O. Box 651” was noted on Army blueprints as an “Officer’s School”, but in reality was actually a top-secret, highly specialized intelligence-gathering facility. The depression had closed the last of the area’s hotels by 1938. Then ironically enough, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Byron’s Japanese-American residents were soon shipped out to distant internment camps, only to make room for incoming Japanese POW’s. The derelict resorts discreetly came back to life again behind tall fences and heavy gates.After arriving at Camp Tracy, prisoners were roomed in pairs and continuously monitored, frequently interrogated, and their conversations covertly recorded and meticulously analyzed. Walls were heavily insulated and microphones were hidden in light fixtures, wall outlets, and air vents intentionally situated between rooms to invite seemingly private conversations between prison cells. Listening devices were also placed in many trees outside the buildings.The camp was experimental. Here it was firmly hoped that courtesy and kindness would overcome reticence far more productively than deprivation, abuse and terror. Here amidst stately red brick buildings, manicured lawns and palm trees, the strategy was to use patience, friendliness, and cultural understanding. Gramophones, playing cards, mahjong sets, natural hot springs, mud baths, and home-cooked meals prepared by Japanese chefs were used to help relax prisoners into divulging important clues for piecing together bigger pictures of enemy morale, weapons, installations, and planning. Intelligence reports referred to all prisoners as “guests”.Though Germans and Italians also passed through the camp, Japanese prisoners were treated especially well because they had been indoctrinated that capture made them irredeemable and that their families would disown them. Techniques could always get heavier later on - - with threats to notify relatives in Japan of their POW status - - but it was believed that if interrogators started with abusive techniques it would have been all but impossible to win back any trust or goodwill later on. And so it was proven: compassionately-gained intelligence yielded more extensive and confirmable information, that was also of higher quality. This was especially the case with the profoundly hopeless and demoralized Japanese who had nothing left to lose.Camp Tracy turned out to be outstandingly productive; a secret weapon.Consequently, nearly half of Camp Tracy’s 45 interrogators were Japanese-American specialists from the Army’s Military Intelligence Service Language School. These ‘Nisei’ worked for their country even while their own families languished in the internment camps. Each interrogator dedicated himself to one prisoner until it was deemed that no further useful information could be obtained. Interviews were relaxed and generally held over the course of an hour or so, taking place 3 or 4 times a day, then those notes were combined with observational data, recordings, and other gathered intelligence. As the returns diminished, room had to be made for the next wave of fresh prisoners.And so eventually, after three weeks of virtual resort life in California, our good friend Yamamoto-san found himself shipped out again, this time to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.Secret world of Camp Tracy revealedFORT McCOYHe was sent to McCoy along with some German POW’s in luxurious Pullman cars attended by porters and served by waiters in the dining car - - surreal and absurd to say the least. And the African-American soldiers of America’s segregated military had to give up their seats for the white and even Asian prisoners of war.Moreover, throughout their captivity in America the Axis POW’s would receive the same rations as any regular American soldier, including two packs of American cigarettes every day. Many hoarded cigarettes to trade for other goods, making their surprisingly comfortable lives even more comfortable. The Germans laughed about it. The Japanese only felt deeper shame, but they were touched with wonder too. Watching the picturesque countryside and small towns slide by, America was experienced as surprisingly vast and rich and strangely, like the only place left on earth untouched by war. It was beautiful and exciting; something unknown back home; and it somehow suggested a wider, brighter future for the world.Fort McCoy sprawled across 60,000 acres; almost 100 square miles. It served as a major U.S. Army training camp, but also as a “Detention Center” for interned Americans - - and “enemy aliens” - - and also as one of the largest POW camps in America. In fact, it held nearly half of all stateside Japanese POW’s, which meant 2,749 Japanese enlisted soldiers and sailors, 3 Japanese officers, and 10 NCO’s. Yamamoto discovered his fellow Japanese prisoners were relatively happy here. There would be only 14 Japanese escape attempts from Fort McCoy during the entire war. According to the Provost Marshal General’s Office, of the 5,424 total Japanese prisoners of war held in the United States, only 24 would die in captivity; 2 were suicides, 3 were shot trying to escape, 1 died in a farming accident, and the remaining 18 died of causes either natural or related to their earlier war injuries. Fears of widespread suicides, not even after the Emperor’s broadcasted surrender over the camp public address systems, simply never materialized.(In all, it’s estimated about 425,000 Axis prisoners were sent to 700 different prisoner-of-war camps scattered across the United States. The vast majority of these prisoners were German. )The Japanese found themselves in Compounds 1 and 2, the Germans in 3 and 4, and the Koreans in Compound 5. The wooden barracks were lined with rows of comfortable double bunks. Everyone received fresh cotton sheets, heavy woolen army blankets, and soft pillows. Other POW buildings were fitted out as mess halls and recreation centers.Prisoners were actually paid $.80 a day in scrip - - considerably more than most had made as soldiers - - which could then be spent at the camp’s canteen where sandwiches, pens, toothpaste, soft drinks, extra cigarettes, cards, and even beer were always available. Most evenings Hollywood movies and propaganda films were shown (films like “Gone with the Wind”, “Lost Horizon”, and Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight”).Officer POWs were not required to work, but everyone else did, and they largely enjoyed it. Many engaged in camp clerical or maintenance work, or were contracted out as farm hands; work much like many prisoners had been doing back home before the war. Additionally, the War Prisoners Aid of the YMCA provided still further comforts, such as mahjong sets, board games, musical instruments, library books, sports equipment, hobby materials, phonograph records, and much more.The prison camps were so comfortable and promising that many Germans and Italians actually refused to be repatriated back home after the war. Instead some managed to meet and marry local girls during their imprisonment so that they could stay. Many others returned to America after their repatriations as immigrants.Paradoxically, interned Japanese-Americans couldn’t say the same thing about America’s internment camps.( The internment camps had just 1 doctor for every 1,000 internees… Almost 2,000 would die from dysentery, childbirths without anesthesia, and general neglect… Life in Manzanar … Internment of Japanese Americans - Wikipedia Below: Manzanar “Relocation Center”, 1942…)The sad truth was, America treated prisoners of war better than its own 120,000 Japanese-American internees; its own lawful residents and citizens; men, women and children who were suspected just because of their race, rather than respected.Hunted down by the FBI and U.S. Census Bureau, Japanese-Americans were interned against the Constitution and without the protections of the Geneva Convention. They lived surrounded by armed guard towers. German shepherd’s patrolled the multiple perimeters of tall, barbed wire fences. Their own government had summarily sold their farms, businesses, and homes; disposed of all their personal property. They were told it was for the nations’ security, and more ominously, their own safety, and that they’d be interned indefinitely, or at least for as long as the war takes.And some were also transferred to U.S. Army prison camps to live and work, side by side, with German and Italian prisoners of war. Despite that added humiliation, they were the lucky ones because the POW camps were far more comfortable, entertaining, and better medically equipped than the internment camps.In a 1943 nationwide Gallup Poll, 48% of Americans believed the detainees should not be allowed to return to the Pacific Coast after the war; only 35% felt they should be allowed to go back. Answers to the follow-up question - - “What should be done with them?” - - indicated 50% wanted them sent “back to Japan”, and 13% said, “Put them out of this country”, while an additional 10% said the U.S. government should “Leave them where they are - - under control”.This was the same country in which pollsters found in 1939 that 53% of Americans agreed that “Jews are different and should be restricted”; the same country that between 1933 and 1945 took in only 132,000 Jewish refugees, just 10% of its own legally-set quota; the same country that doomed 20,000 Jewish children fleeing the Nazi’s in 1939 by not admitting them. The wife of the U.S. Commissioner of Immigration remarked at a cocktail party: “20, 000 children would all too soon grow up to be 20,000 ugly adults”.Instead of harboring them, the U.S. pressed Britain and Latin American countries to admit the Jewish refugees, but they all refused them too. By June of 1942 the U.S. government and the Allies had hard irrefutable evidence of Hitler’s actions to annihilate the Jews, yet ships full of refugees would continue to be turned away for the rest of the war, and even afterwards during the chaos and deprivations of Europe’s recovery.Meanwhile back in Hawaii, and paradoxically, where America’s security risk remained especially high, just 1,800 Japanese-Americans were sent off to the internment camps. This was because over one-third of Hawaii’s total population (423,000) was made up of Japanese-Americans (158,000).Many asked, what about the threat of 1.2 million ‘Germans’ and the 700,000 ‘Italians’ living in America - - lawful immigrant residents and naturalized U.S. citizens born overseas? Well… They were noted in the “Custodial Detention Index” too, but mostly just watched. Though sometimes brought in for interrogation, they were rarely arrested. The U.S. government temporarily detained as many as 13,000 Germans and Italians, but very few people of these nationalities were actually sent to internment camps for the duration of the war like the Japanese-Americans.Roosevelt’s internment (Executive Order 9066) proved itself far-reaching and contagious; just six days later Canada followed suit with their own racist government order, authorizing the detention and forced relocation of 8,000 Japanese-Canadians from British Columbia. Japanese people were arrested and interned in Latin America too, and thousands of them were sent up to the U.S. camps. Some 1,000 native Alaskans were swept up too, against fears they might collaborate with the Japanese. They were sent to “duration camps”; cold, wet abandoned canneries scattered across southwestern Alaska. Many of them would die in these harsh, forlorn places so far from home.Although the U.S. Navy, Marines, and Army Air Corp wouldn’t accept Japanese-Americans into their ranks, by war’s end some 33,000 Nisei served with exceptional distinction in the United States Army, earning 8 Presidential Unit Citations, 21 Medals of Honor (20 of which were announced in 2000 after ‘further review’), 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 559 Silver Stars, and 9,486 Purple Hearts, among many other decorations. 800 Nisei sacrificed their lives.Ironically, a Nisei unit would be one of the groups which liberated the concentration camp of Dachau.Here again, as historian Stephen Ambrose said, we had “the world’s greatest democracy fighting the world’s worst racist, Hitler, with a segregated army”.The injustice of internment finally ended in late 1944 though, when the Supreme Court ruled that the incarceration of Japanese-Americans was unconstitutional and illegal. Then this is how the internees of 1945 were welcomed back home in places like Seattle:Why is the self-destructiveness, the utter wastefulness, and ugliness of racism - - cutting off a nose to spite the face - - still so hard for so many to see?Why in God’s perfect world does humanity continue to ignore the tragic costs of hating?SAKAMAKI… “Mr. POW No. 1”(Why is this man smiling?)Killing time at Fort McCoy, Yamamoto came to know America’s first Japanese prisoner, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki. Sakamaki had been the sole survivor from a crew of 10 on a mini-submarine during the attack on Pearl Harbor. In an attempt to dive back down to his disabled sub to see why a bomb he had set didn’t go off, he passed out and woke up under guard in a U.S. Army hospital. Consequently, he was stricken from Japanese records and officially ceased to exist in his homeland. Meanwhile his captured sub made a highly publicized tour of the United States pitching war bonds. His survival during the otherwise successful attack at Pearl Harbor was felt as an epic failure and disgrace. Like Yamamoto, he too requested a knife for killing himself only to be denied.But in time, by combination of his POW seniority, rank, and charisma, Sakamaki became a camp leader for the Japanese prisoners at Fort McCoy. And after the war, rather than returning to an expected life of humiliation and being despised, he emerged as somewhat of a minor celebrity back in Japan. Then he quietly rose through the ranks at Toyota to become a high-ranking executive posted in South America.Sakamaki’s post-war reality in a defeated Japan was a mixed bag, but mostly not nearly as shameful as he had been indoctrinated to expect. Mostly, he simply refused to be personally defeated.After returning to Japan, he was surprised to receive so many letters. They reflected a Japan that has changed since 1941; it was now a liberated country in transformation. Here are just a couple examples (from Sakamaki’s book, Pearl Harbor, pgs 108-109):“Your past is not wrong at all. You need not feel ashamed. On the contrary, we owe you thanks. With a new heart, please work for a reconstruction of our beloved country.”“No wonder we lost the war, Mr. POW No. 1. Although I am a mere merchant, I know how to commit Hara-kiri. A man who does not know what shame is, is a beast. If you want to die now, I will gladly come and show you how it’s done. Which is the manlier life - - live long and cheap, or live short but glorious? Shame on you.”“I cannot understand how you could return alive. The souls of the brave comrades who fought with you and died must be crying now over what you have done. If you are not ashamed of yourself now, please explain how come. If you are ashamed of yourself now, you should commit suicide at once and apologize to the spirits of the heroes who died honorably.”The latter examples, however, were admittedly extreme and in the minority. They were the vestiges of a rapidly fading, fanatical wartime Japan, and not what Sakamaki normally experienced in his new work or walking down the street or living with his neighbors.He recounts his transformation during his American captivity (Pearl Harbor, pgs. 129 and 133):“My steps were these:All-out attack, failure, capture;a sense of dilemma, mental struggles,attempts at suicide, failure again;self-contempt, deep disillusionment,despair and melancholy;reflections,desire to learn and yearning for truth,meditation;rediscovering myself, self-encouragement,discovery of a new duty,freedom through love;and finally, a desire for reconstruction”.“… I claim no credit for this transformation. I wish to preach to no one. I only hope that this will show to all… that man is capable of being made anew. I learned it as a prisoner. It was the best education of my life.”In the end, ‘surrender’ turned out to be a spectacular new beginning for the Japanese…By surrendering, they won their “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” after all. America benevolently occupied japan for just 7 years as they rebuilt it. With U.S. protection and $28 billion of aid (2018 dollars), their nation would ultimately accomplish even greater power, security, and prosperity in peace than the militarists had dreamed of from war. They would thrive as an island nation, still limited in resources, and without territorial expansion, by growing through development and trade, and by sharing wealth and renouncing slavery. And they helped the world prevail over an enemy they shared with democracies even before the war: communism.They allied with the U.S. closely, and Japan went on to miraculously become the world’s second largest economy by the 1960’s.If the POW Camps in America weren’t convincing enough, Japanese inmates and their common fellow citizens would soon live to see their country finally freed from feudal oppression; they’d live freer, better lives than anyone ever imagined.(See: Tony Purtell's answer to Who won World War 2, the USA or Japan? )The American POW camps cleared out and shut down with amazing speed. Yamamoto was sent home much faster than expected; much faster than the vast majority of overseas American soldiers who were impatiently waiting for their de-mobilizations back to the States. But unlike many of his compatriots, Yamamoto arrived home only to disappear. He went missing in the peace.Yamamoto however, might have smiled to learn that after the war Camp Tracy was transformed into a Greek Orthodox monastery… And then back into a resort again… Which in turn later became an exclusive country club, and then finally a sprawling private residence before falling into disrepair. Today it’s yet another developer’s pipedream of future escapes.* * * * *THE POW’s of WORLD WAR IIFor all the soldiers who survived combat to see a prison camp, over 5,000,000 would die in captivity during the Second World War. It was a ‘Second Holocaust’ few recognize or ever talk about.The experience of Allied prisoners held by the Japanese was starkly and tragically different than Yamamoto’s.POW DEATH RATES in Captivity were as follows:Soviet POW’s held by Germans: 57.50% (Below)American POW’s held by Japanese: 40.40% (See General Jonathan Wainwright, Commander U.S. Army Philippines and highest ranking American POW survived virtually the entire war in Japanese hands)German POW’s held by Yugoslavia: 41.20%German POW’s held by Soviets: 35.80%German POW’s held by Eastern Europeans: 32.90%British POW’s held by Japanese: 24.80%German POW’s held by Czechoslovakia: 5.00%British POW’s held by Germans: 3.50%German POW’s held by French: 2.58%German POW’s held by Americans: .15%German POW’s held by British: .03% (See below… Like family!)Although Japanese representatives had signed the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, their military-controlled government never ratified it because they viewed surrender as dishonorable. Consequently, the Japanese authorities neither recognized the existence of captured Japanese military personnel, nor did they treat prisoners in accordance with international agreements, including provisions of the Hague Conventions. The International Red Cross was never allowed direct access to Japanese-held POW’s. In fact, Emperor Hirohito himself ratified a directive on August 5th, 1937, explicitly removing the constraints of the Hague Conventions in regards to Chinese prisoners - - virtually none would survive.Thus the Japanese performed horrific medical experiments on prisoners, referring to them as numbered “logs”. They routinely subjected their prisoners to summary beheadings, practice bayonetting’s, torture, death marches, starvation rations, withholdings of medical treatment, forced hard labor unto death, and even cannibalism (the Japanese ate some of their prisoners, sometimes even while still alive, simply to show that they could). They transported Allied prisoners on “Hell Ships” - - inhumanely crowded, unsanitary, and unmarked transport ships - - which were then often attacked by submarines of the prisoners’ own countries. Over 20,000 allied prisoners died this way. After March 20th, 1943, the Imperial Japanese Navy was given standing orders to execute all prisoners taken at sea. Then near the end of the war, the War Ministry in Tokyo issued an order to kill all surviving POW’s. Although many thousands of Allied prisoners were eventually released after the surrender of Japan on September 2nd, 1945, just 56 Chinese prisoners survived the standing order.Successful escapes from Japanese camps were rare. The Japanese issued bounties for recapturing prisoners, along with outrageously disproportionate and harsh reprisals against any community even suspected of sheltering escapees. After the Doolittle Raid in April of 1942, some 250,000 Chinese people were massacred over several months in such reprisals. Entire villages were wiped out and biological weapons were used. Consequently, it was extremely difficult for Caucasian prisoners to cross through Asiatic societies without being widely noticed and feared.In any theater, though, securing, transporting, housing, feeding, and caring for prisoners of war cost valuable resources and presented significant liabilities. Many who surrendered themselves never lived to see a POW camp. For perspective, here is a comparison of estimated capture rates between the major countries over the course of the war:Number Served / Number Captured / Percentage CapturedGermany: 18,200,000 11,100,000 61%Italy: 3,430,000 1,300,000 38%Soviet Union: 34,476,700 5,750,000 16%Britain: 17,843,000 318,000 1.7%United States: 16,353,639 130,201 .79%Japan 8,400,000 40,000 .47%Regarding the low Japanese POW figures above, it should be noted that they do not include an estimated 500,000 -650,000 soldiers of the Japanese Kwantung Army who were seized by the Soviets en masse in Manchuria and northern Korea in August of 1945. Nightmarish weeks of uncontrolled raping and pillaging followed Hirohito’s famous surrender broadcast in Manchuria; civilian and Japanese soldier suicides were widespread. Then, finally, rather than taking on the costly and arduous process of repatriating the vast, exhausted and demoralized remnants of the Kwantung Army, the Soviets simply shipped them off in cattle cars to the labor camps of Siberia. Most never returned to Japan.The seizure of Manchuria aside, it is extraordinary that only an estimated 40,000 Japanese combatants out of the 8,400,000 Japanese who fought during the war, allowed themselves to become POW’s. The Japanese code of Bushido demanded every warrior fight to the death, insisting that any surrender would be a betrayal of their ancestors and their Emperor. A 1944 U.S. Military Intelligence Bulletin excerpted the following from a captured Japanese treatise:“… Do not allow yourself to be captured, even if the alternative is death. Bear in mind that capture disgraces not only the Army but also your parents and family, who will never be able to hold up their heads again. Always save the last round for yourself.”When Japanese soldiers did surrender, they often did so believing it meant breaking all ties with Japan. As a result, many of those men provided exceptionally valuable intelligence.On the other hand, the surprisingly low number of Japanese prisoners can also be explained by the fact that the Allies were often not willing to take Japanese prisoners due to the savagery of the fighting, reports and evidence of Japanese atrocities, booby-trapped casualties, and a frequently-stoked racial hatred. Additionally, throughout the entire war many Japanese feigned surrender or injuries only to attack.In general, Japanese soldiers assumed the Allies treated prisoners the same way they did, and so the belief became self-fulfilling to a varying extent on both sides.It’s no wonder that over 40% of American POW’s and 25% of British POW’s died in Japanese hands. In sharp sickening contrast, the mortality rate for Japanese prisoners held by the British and Americans was statistically insignificant; a tiny fraction of 1%.INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN, Volume II, No. 10, June 1944Military Intelligence Division, War Department, Washington, D.C.“JAPANESE VIEWS ON HANDLING PRISONERSThe views of a Japanese naval ensign on handling prisoners of war are presented below. While these views are not necessarily enemy doctrine, it is believed that they are pretty well in line with Japanese thought on the subject. The ensigns’ views tend to verify that the enemy is very much interested in prisoner-of-war information, and that he is aware of the talkative tendencies of some United Nations soldiers. The ensign’s views:“Insofar as possible, prisoners should be picked up separately.Conversation and communication between prisoners should be restricted.Captured documents, messages, and other items of intelligence value should be used in connection with the interrogation of prisoners. These should be studied and arranged in a manner for reference. The main idea is to get the prisoners to interpret these documents as completely as possible.In interrogating, force should be the guiding principle. Because the prisoner’s native language is different from ours, it is difficult to take advantage of any slip of his tongue, to give a detailed examination, or to use indirect-questioning methods (especially when the interrogator lacks confidence in his vocabulary). Therefore, it is easier (for the interrogator) to conduct a formal interview. The feeling that the victor is superior and the loser inferior should pervade the interrogation. If necessary, you should demand that questions and answers be made in writing.Until the object of the interrogation has been attained, the prisoner should be made to feel anxious about his fate, should become physically exhausted, and consideration of such should be given to his quarters, food, and drink, surveillance and so forth.”Not exactly Camp Tracy…FROM YAMAMOTO’S US ARMY INTERROGATION FILE:- - CONFIDENTIAL - -Date of interrogation: June 10, 1943.PW’s Name: YAMAMOTO, RyukichiPW’s Serial No.: 2145 Sgt.Int. Name: Capt. L. E. JonesUnit or Vessel: 25 Div. 22 Inf. Rgt.Date and Place of Capture:ATTU, ALEUTIAN IS., 25 May 1943.PREAMBLE:Prisoner of War (PW) was born, Jan. 7, 1918, in NAGANO-KEN, KARUIZAWA- MACHI.Legal Domicile:NAGANO-KEN, KARUIZAWA-MACHI, 1608He graduated from FUKUOKA-SHI Middle School and later attended the HIROSHIMA HIGH SCHOOL (Koto-Gakko) from which he graduated.He was employed in the Hiroshima City Hall as a clerk from graduation until induction into the Army in 1940.A former report has been checked and agrees substantially with PW’s present statements. He is evasive, and somewhat security conscious. He maintains an attitude of ignorance and a lapse of memory in relation to places he has visited. Because of this attitude, no additional information has been obtained. He is considered unreliable.CHRONOLOGY:7 Jan 1918Born in NAGANO-KEN KARUIZAWA-MACHI.Apr 1924 – Mar 1930 Primary School.Apr 1932 – Mar 1936 Middle School.Apr 1936 – Mar 1939 High School.May 1939 – June 1939 Worked as clerk in Hiroshima City Office.17 Aug 1940 Inducted into Army atHIROSHIMA.20 Nov 1940 Left for MUKDEN, MANCHURIA.27 Feb 1941 Transferred to KALGAN,INNER MONGOLIA.10 Aug 1941 Transferred to KASHIWABARA,KURILE IS.20 Oct 1942 Left for ATTU, ALEUTIAN IS.25 May 1943 Wounded, and capturedMASACRE BAY, ATTU.CAPTURE:PW was captured near MASSACRE BAY 25 May 1943 after having been wounded in the shoulder and right hand by machine gun bullets.He was the only man who survived from his platoon.When found by LT. BROWN he was nearly dead from loss of blood.UNIT OF FORCE:He trained for three months in the 10thInf. Regt. in HIROSHIMA.After arriving in MUKDEN he was transferred to the 25thRailroad Guards and for three months saw duty between MUKDEN and ANTUNG (33 46’ – 119 18’).He transferred from the 25thRailroad Guards to the 22ndInfantry Regiment In KALGAN (41 51’ – 114 54’) and remained in this unit until captured on ATTU ISLAND.IDENTIFICATION:His convoy to ATTU of 5 ships, Asama Maru, Kokura Maru, Ise Maru, and Kobe Maru, and the 5thship’s name unknown, was escorted by three destroyers; UME, SAKURA, and TAKE.These were old destroyers and somewhat slow.The transports were all about 3,500 tons.All had one funnel, and painted grey.PERSONALITIES:Lt. Col. YAMAMOTO, TEICHI was in command of the 22ndInfantry Regiment and about 40 years old. He committed suicide when he saw the battle was being lost.Major ISHIKAMA, RYUKICHIMajor NAGATA, SEIICHICapt. HONDA, HACHIRO22ndInfantry RegimentEQUIPMENT:PW’s unit was equipped with the following weapons:One half used Sampachi 6.5mm rifles, the other half99 Shiki or 7.7mm.He stated that the new 7.7mm is far superior to the Sampachi and that there will be no more 6.5mm sent to the Manchurian or northern garrisons.Nambu Light Machine Guns 6.5mmHeavy Machine Guns 6.5mmModel 3 (1914) Air cooledWith tripod 60.3 LbsGrenade Launcher 50mm comes in twomodels. The old has a smooth bore andthe new is rifled. Overall length 20inches. Tube 10 inches.Ammunition: Model 89 shell (handgrenade), time fuse grenade, signalgrenade, and smoke grenade.Rate of fire: 10 – 20 rounds perminute. Effective use of burst, 5 – 25yards radius.Mountain Gun 75mmModel 41 (1908)Rate of fire: 10 per minute.RADAR:A radar set was being installed by an expert from KISKA when the battle began.He heard that the radar expert was captured and should be able to give much information.COMMUNICATIONS:Communication with the Kurile’s was maintained by submarines which surfaced daily. These subs brought in supplies and news.DEFENSES:Because of the peculiar terrain of ATTU, caves were constructed throughout the island. The hospital was also in a cave.ENEMY SUPPLIES:Oil and gasoline was stored in drums. There was a plentiful supply cached at points throughout the island.Ammunition was sealed in water-tight boxes and buried.Because of poor planning, ammunition was scarce in times of need. PW blamed his superiors for this poor planning.MORALE AND PROPAGANDA:He stated emphatically that Japan would eventually win the present war. But, should she lose, this is the beginning of a one-hundred-year war.PW believes the TOJO regime is honest and has the support of Japan as a whole.The Emperor is the divine head of the nation.Home front morale is very high.Allied raids will unite the people in a new spirit of determination.Japan hates Russia and he believes the Manchurian Army can hold Russia in check.Allied leaflets cannot influence the populace or the Japanese soldier.Loudspeaker broadcasts to the front lines will be useless.If Japan loses the war the Empire will be lost. The nation will be as in 1895.Mail came to ATTU about once a month.Officers and men are distantly separated in the Japanese Army. Discipline is very rigid. Face-slapping’s still continue. This is to harden the privates and is part of their training. However, PW hates it and the men do likewise.LOCALITIES:The wharf at KASHIWABARA (50 41’ – 156 08’) is made of wood and about 100 meters long.Troops were quartered in wooden barracks near the wharf. These barracks were constructed by the NICHIRYO Gyogyo Fishing Company of Tokyo for their fishermen who were there during the summer. He stated that these barracks were flimsy structures and unsuitable for the severe KURILE winters. Men complained much about them.Ten thousand ton naval ships were anchored about a mile from the wharf at KASHIWABARA.Three large fuel tanks were located near the wharf. They contained oil and gasoline.Ten-thousand-ton cruisers passed through the strait between PARAMUSHIRO and SHIMUSHU Islands.The airfield on the plateau above KASHIWABARA was seldom used.The field near KATAOKA [ on Shimushu Island] across the strait from KASHIWABARA was being used constantly.SPECIAL INTELLIGENCE:Shortages in equipment must be felt, as PW was often admonished by the various commanders to be very careful, as the present equipment was all they would get.He stated that when he received letters from home, he could sense shortages being experienced by the populace in Japan.He heard from men newly arriving in KASHIWABARA from Japan, that millions of women were working in the many war plants. Shifts were long. Pay was good, but commodities very scarce.THE ENDATTITUDES OF PWS:1.Antagonistic.2.Average intelligence.3.Above average intelligence.4.Co-operative.5.Evasive.6.Extremely security conscious.7.Friendly.8.Feigned ignorance.9.Fresh.10.Highly co-operative.11.Impolite.12.Lapse of memory.13.Liar.14.Polite.15.Reserved.16.Security conscious.17.Sullen.18.Talkative.19.Trustworthy.20.Un-trustworthy.21.Un-intelligent.22.Un-observant.23.Un-friendly.24.Vague.25.Very forgetful.