What did the US do with POWs in ww2?

As American and Russian forces closed in from opposite directions, many American POWs were taken from camps and forced to march for weeks as the Germans tried to avoid the Allied forces. In the Pacific Theater, nearly 30,000 Americans were imprisoned by the Japanese.

What did Americans do with POWs in ww2?

In addition to German facilities, there were camps in the U.S. to house more than 51,000 Italian POWs and 5,000 Japanese prisoners. More POWs were detained by American forces in Europe, the Far East and elsewhere.

What happened to American POWs after ww2?

Over time, the majority of those POWs were transported to other parts of Japan's wartime empire to serve as slave laborers.

What does the U.S. do with prisoners of war?

As a general rule, POWs must be released and repatriated without delay at the end of active hostilities. But some factors like a POW's health, parole policies, and special agreements among states can lead to earlier release.

How did the U.S. treat German POWs?

Prisoners had friendly interaction with local civilians and sometimes were allowed outside the camps without guards on the honor system (Black American soldiers, including Rupert Trimmingham, noted that German prisoners could visit restaurants that they could not because of Jim Crow laws.), luxuries such as beer and ...

The Untold Truth Of America's WWII German POW Camps

Is it a war crime to execute POWs?

The Third Geneva Convention governs the treatment of prisoners of war, effective from the moment of capture. This includes obligations to treat them humanely at all times. It is a war crime to willfully kill, mistreat, or torture POWs, or to willfully cause great suffering, or serious injury to body or health.

How did the Japanese treat female POWs?

Unprepared for coping with so many captured European prisoners, the Japanese held those who surrendered to them in contempt, especially the women. The men at least could be put to work as common laborers, but women and children were "useless mouths." This attitude would dictate Japanese policy until the end of the war.

Why were American POWs treated so badly?

One reason why POWs were treated so poorly was because of the Japanese belief that surrender was dishonorable.

Who was the longest held POW in ww2?

"Floyd James Thompson". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2008-02-02. Booknotes interview with Tom Philpott on Glory Denied: The Saga of Jim Thompson, America's Longest-Held Prisoner of War, August 5, 2001.

What did Americans do to Japanese POW?

Most Japanese captured by US forces after September 1942 were turned over to Australia or New Zealand for internment.

What did Russia do with German prisoners?

Approximately three million German prisoners of war were captured by the Soviet Union during World War II, most of them during the great advances of the Red Army in the last year of the war. The POWs were employed as forced labor in the Soviet wartime economy and post-war reconstruction.

How did the Allies treat POWs in ww2?

Although Allied prisoners of war complained of the scarcity of food within German POW camps, they were treated comparatively well. For example, ordinary soldiers who were made to work were compensated, and officers were exempt from work requirements.

What was the leading cause of death in a POW camp?

The most common category of causes of deaths of POWs was infectious disease, 5,013 (65.8%) out of 7,614 deaths, followed by external causes including injury, 817 (10.7%). Overall, tuberculosis and dysentery/diarrhea were the most common causes of death.

Are there still U.S. POWs in Vietnam?

STATUS OF THE POW/MIA ISSUE: July 12, 2022

1,584 Americans are still listed by DoD as missing and unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War: Vietnam - 1,244 (VN-442, VS-802); Laos–285; Cambodia-48; Peoples Republic of China territorial waters–7.

How many American POW are still missing?

Our research and operational missions include coordination with hundreds of countries and municipalities around the world. As this map shows, at present, more than 81,500 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts.

Did the Japanese treat any POWs well?

The treatment of American and allied prisoners by the Japanese is one of the abiding horrors of World War II. Prisoners were routinely beaten, starved and abused and forced to work in mines and war-related factories in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Were American POWs tortured in Vietnam?

North Vietnamese torture was exceptionally cruel--prison guards bound POWs' arms and legs with tight ropes and then dislocated them, and left men in iron foot stocks for days or weeks. Extreme beatings were common, many times resulting in POW deaths.

Who was the longest POW in history?

United States Army Colonel Floyd “Jim” Thompson, the longest held prisoner of war (POW) in American history, and his wife, Alyce, were products of the idealism of post-World War II America. When Thompson was shot down and captured, they began a journey that changed them forever.

Why did the Japanese soldiers treat their prisoners so poorly?

The reasons for the Japanese behaving as they did were complex. The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) indoctrinated its soldiers to believe that surrender was dishonourable. POWs were therefore thought to be unworthy of respect. The IJA also relied on physical punishment to discipline its own troops.

What did Japan do to Chinese POWs?

Only 56 Chinese prisoners of war were released after the surrender of Japan. After 20 March 1943, officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy ordered and encouraged the Navy to execute all prisoners taken at sea.

How many Japanese were executed for war crimes?

In addition to the central Tokyo trial, various tribunals sitting outside Japan judged some 5,000 Japanese guilty of war crimes, of whom more than 900 were executed.

Can POW be tortured?

No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.

Can you shoot escaping POWs?

2551 Article 42 limits the use of weapons against prisoners of war to extreme cases. Nevertheless, if prisoners succeed in escaping, they become targetable again under the rules on the conduct of hostilities, and the limits imposed by Article 42 no longer apply.

What are POWs allowed to say?

Explanation: When questioned, a POW is required by the Geneva Conventions and the CoC to only give the name, rank, service number, and date of birth.

What did Vietnam do to POW?

They were tortured, isolated, and psychologically abused in violation of the Geneva Convention of 1949, to which North Vietnam was a signatory. Some POWs were paraded before reporters and foreign visitors and forced to confess to war crimes against the people of Vietnam. Others resisted torture and refused to comply.