POWs in the Second World War

World War Two was brutal on all sides, and no doubt racism played a role. Many Japanese Americans were interned for much of the war, and nothing like that happened to German Americans. In fact it would have been difficult to intern German Americans because they were the largest single ethnic group in the nation, more numerous than English or Irish Americans. But in reading about the war (which began for us when I was in the first grade), it does strike me that more than racism became involved in the differences in American perceptions of Germans and Japanese. It's probably obvious that there was a much greater cultural gulf between the Japanese and the Americans. When the Germans or Americans forces were surrounded, they surrendered; the Japanese fought to the death or committed suicide.

Two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, a continuation of a policy, pushed first by the British, of deliberately targeting civilians.This occurred after Germany had surrendered, but even so it seems clear that American policy was more ferocious when it came to the Japanese. Some part of that might have come from the Japanese treatment of American POWs. In its conquering of much of the East, the Japanese had taken about 35,000 American POWs. The Japanese Army's standing order was that these prisoners were to be executed if it seemed possible that Allied troops were about to liberate them. In various battles, thousands were executed. Thousands were starved to death. In the Japanese military tradition, surrender was dishonorable and prisoners were worthless. In all, 37% of American POWs  held by the Japanese died. Among American POWs held by the Germans, 1% died.