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The Anguish of
Surrender: Japanese POWs of World War II
University of Washington Press, 2004.
On December 6, 1941,
Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki was one of a handful of men selected to skipper
midget subs on a suicide mission to breach Pearl Harbor’s defenses. When
his equipment malfunctioned, he couldn’t find the entrance to the harbor.
He hit several reefs, eventually splitting the sub, and swam to shore some
miles from Pearl Harbor. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up
on the beach by two Japanese American MPs on patrol. Sakamaki became
Prisoner No. 1 of the Pacific War. |
| Japan’s
no-surrender policy did not permit becoming a POW. Sakamaki and his fellow
soldiers and sailors had been indoctrinated to choose between victory and a
heroic death. While his comrades had perished, he had survived. By avoiding
glorious death and becoming a prisoner of war, Sakamaki believed he had
brought shame and dishonor on himself, his family, his community, and his
nation, in effect relinquishing his citizenship. Sakamaki fell into despair
and, like so many Japanese POWs, begged his captors to kill him.
Based on the author’s interviews with
dozens of former Japanese POWs along with memoirs only recently coming to
light, The Anguish of Surrender tells one of the great unknown stories of
World War II. Beginning with an examination of Japan’s prewar
ultranationalist climate and the harsh code that precluded the possibility
of capture, the author investigates the circumstances of surrender and
capture of men like Sakamaki and their experiences in POW camps.
Many POWs, ill and starving after days
wandering in the jungles or hiding out in caves, were astonished at the
superior quality of food and medical treatment they received. Contrary to
expectations, most Japanese POWs, psychologically unprepared to deal with
interrogations, provided information to their captors. Trained Allied
linguists, especially Japanese Americans, learned how to extract
intelligence by treating the POWs humanely. Allied intelligence personnel
took advantage of lax Japanese security precautions to gain extensive
information from captured documents. A few POWs, recognizing Japan’s
certain defeat, even assisted the Allied war effort to shorten the war. Far
larger numbers staged uprisings in an effort to commit suicide. Most sought
to survive, suffered mental anguish, and feared what awaited them in their
homeland.
These
deeply human stories follow Japanese prisoners through their camp
experiences to their return to their welcoming families and reintegration
into postwar society. These stories are told here for the first time in
English. Amazon.com
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