Sunday, January 11, 2015
POW
It came as a shock to read about how bad Louie and the other POW were treated. They were given minimal food that was infected with rat droppings and maggots. They were consistently beaten for harmless actions such as looking out the window. On top of the poor conditions, they were dehumanized. The Japanese tried to strip the POW of their dignity. In addition, the prisoners constantly worried about the "kill-all" rule. Under this policy, the Japanese would kill all of the prisoners if Allie advances were made (Hillenbrand 204). What keeps the prisoners from giving up and enduring this terrible treatment? It also made me wonder if POW are still treated this badly today.
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I am not exactly sure how POWs are treated today, however, I do know that they are held in what are called military prisons with better food and living condition than what Louie and the other American prisoners during WWII. Louie talks about dignity during the book and describes it saying, "Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen" (Hillenbrand 184). I think the fact that their dignity was preserved in the concentration camp in Japan helped the men survived. In that type of situation the mental aspects of survival are just as important as the physical. Louie and the rest of the men continue to think of their families and writing home. They don't give up because they know how strong the chance is that the Americans win the war. The men think about everything they have gone through and they take their mind off life in the camp by sneaking around, stealing, and communicating with each other (Hillenbrand 203). They are able to distract themselves from things like the "kill-all" rule and through each others company and hope they are able to survive.
ReplyDeleteWhoops, I meant to share these links with you guys in my last comment:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nps.gov/ande/historyculture/history-legal-status-pows.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_prison
The first one talks about the history of POWs and some notable American ones. I thought it was interesting how it gave information on many different wars and the POWs each one had. It also talked about the legality of it and gave some cool facts.
I thought the Wikipedia link was cool because it gave some pictures of American Military Prisons and what they look like today. I thought some of the pictures were extremely interesting and they got me wanting to learn more about it.