Japanese Prisons
Japanese Influence Throughout Asia
Kinkaseki POW Camp - 1942-1945
One brutal Japanese prison camp during World War II was called Kinkaseki, where prisoners slaved away in the copper mine, forced to work in lethal conditions.
Prisoners told tales of the prison guards ripping out their teeth and making belts out of the tattooed skin of their comrades.
"Six or eight strokes with a stick, a hammer shaft, and it was called 'getting the hammer.' You'd look at the rock at the beginning of the day, decide whether to go for the 24 [copper ores] or not. Sometimes it was better to get the beating."
- Jack Butterworth, a former POW of Kinkaseki
Bataan Death March
In April 1942, 80,000 U.S. and Filipino soldiers were captured by the Japanese and forced to walk 80 miles with very few supplies and large amounts of physical abuse. This was called the Bataan Death March.
"On the first day, I saw two things I will never forget. A Filipino man had been beheaded. His body lay on the ground with blood everywhere. His head was a short distance away. Also, there was a dead Filipino woman with her legs spread apart and her dress pulled up over her. She obviously had been raped and there was a bamboo stake in her private area. These are instances I would like to forget." |
Interview of Jim Bollich, another Bataan survivor
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Thai-Burma Railway
Camps and mines were not the only place these prisoners were taken. After Japanese forces invaded Burma, they had to maintain supplies. Japan needed a railroad.
In 1942, 60,000 Allied soldiers were captured after their surrender in Malaya. Later, 200,000 Asian laborers were brought to aid in the construction. Of these, over 100,000 people died.
“Cholera rife and men dying at the rate of 20 per day... Appalling state of tropical ulcers – cases seen myself of legs bared to the bone from ankle to knee. No sleep for the wretched patients, who moan all night long – their only hope for the morning to look forward to a repetition of all the previous day’s agonies. No man deserves such a death.” |
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