Conditions for the Prisoners
The Japanese soldiers who ran POW camps often used brutality and torture as a punishment. To add to that, only a few of the Japanese soldiers spoke English, and the prisoners were forced to learn Japanese commands. If a prisoner did not comply with these commands, they were beaten.
The camps were circled by barbed wire, and the consequences for escape attempts were severe. Prisoners stayed in barracks and slept on mats. Forced to work in mines, fields, shipyards and factories, the prisoners worked 12 hour work days with a diet of 600 calories a day. At the end of the war, 1 out of 3 prisoners died from working conditions, hunger, sickness, or beatings.
The camps were circled by barbed wire, and the consequences for escape attempts were severe. Prisoners stayed in barracks and slept on mats. Forced to work in mines, fields, shipyards and factories, the prisoners worked 12 hour work days with a diet of 600 calories a day. At the end of the war, 1 out of 3 prisoners died from working conditions, hunger, sickness, or beatings.