Prisoners Of War

Prisoners of war, or POWs, were military personnel who had surrendered and were entitled to certain protections under the Geneva and Hague Conventions. Only lawful combatants were entitled to these protections. Persons who engaged in combat while not wearing distinctive insignia visible from a distance, or who were not part of a chain of command back to a legal sovereign, were unlawful combatants and had no protection under international law. They were generally executed by both Axis and Allies if taken prisoner.

POWs were theoretically entitled to the same rations, medical care, and pay as their captors. Enlisted men could be required to perform nonmilitary work, but officers could not be required to work. Punishment for attempted escape was limited to 30 days solitary confinement. POWs charged with more serious offenses were entitled to trial by military tribunal in the presence of a neutral observer. On conclusion of hostilities, POWs were required to be repatriated within a reasonable time frame.

In practice, these protections were mostly observed between the western Allies and the European Axis. Japan had signed both the Geneva and Hague Conventions but had ratified only the Hague Conventions, which had less to say about POWs. The Japanese had insisted on unconditional surrender of Allied forces in the Philippines and southeast Asia in the first months of the war, and they took the position that unconditional surrender meant that even the Conventions did not apply.

Under traditional bushido, captives were to be treated with mercy, but this injunction failed to make it into the code of the modern Japanese Army. Allied prisoners of war were regarded by the Japanese as completely dishonorable and were subject to appalling treatment. It did not help that discipline within the Japanese Army itself was brutal, and many of the prison camp guards were Korean conscripts who were at the bottom of the military pecking order. The Korean guards were mistreated by their Japanese NCOs, and mistreated Allied prisoners in turn

Japanese prisoners of war were usually treated humanely, in part because Allied intelligence officers considered prisoners to be valuable intelligence assets. The Japanese did nothing to prepare their men for the possibility of capture, since that possibility was unthinkable, and Japanese prisoners tended to talk freely with their captors if treated well. Many Japanese prisoners begged their captors to allow them to remain in Allied countries and to not inform their government of their capture rather than face the dishonor of returning alive to their families. These requests were refused, since such notification was required under the Conventions.

Russia had not signed the Conventions, and both Russian prisoners and prisoners of the Russians were treated with great brutality in the European war. The brief Russian campaign in Manchuria in August 1945 resulted in the capture of numerous Japanese prisoners, who were generally also treated quite poorly. Some were not repatriated until 1956.