The Emperor's Slave Labor

When I was doing my college coursework at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater one of my geography professors had a hearing aid in each ear.  His hearing aids, it would be revealed, was related to his being a guest of the Emperor of Japan during WWII.  Japan, thinking that such a euphemism would put things in a better light, referred to Prisoners of War (POW) as guests of the Emperor.  What would happen to my former professor, and others was that they were slave labor for many of the Japanese industrial giants, is little known and recognized today.  The book  and movie Unbroken provide but a small glimpse into the life of a POW.  As the social justice warriors of the United States drive around in their Subaru's and Prius' few apparently think of the trials and mistreatment Japan did to the Allied POWs under their "care".  Two prior posts this year focused on the rescue of prisoners who were mainly from the Bataan Death March, and the sinking of the USS Houston.  The Bataan Death March and the sinking of the Houston, along with the Lost Battalion (a National Guard unit from Texas) were among the first American's taken prisoner by Japan.  But, if Japan had followed the code of conduct for war time, as laid out in various accords, my former professor would never have been in Japan.

POWs in Japanese POW camp in the Philippines

First, I could go in to significant detail on the treatment of Allied Prisoner's of War by the Japanese government, but that would be much to lengthy. As noted in a prior post only 1% of Allied POWs died in German hands, compared to 27% held by the Japanese  Let me simply say, that now that top secret files have been released and a few survivors have talked, a better glimpse of treatment has come to light.  A few examples of how well the Japanese treated the Emperor's guests can suffice.  First, men were sometimes made to stand at attention all night naked (in well below zero temperatures of the north of Japan) and in at least one situation a Japanese guard would come by and place use a clamp the private parts of a POW he thought was particularly well endowed.  Second, while building the Burma-Thai Railway, some prisoners were buried up to their heads in the ground and the heads covered with syrup to draw flesh eating ants. Most all prisoners in the tropics of the Philippines, Burma or Thailand had come up with several tropical diseases, and many died due to those--beriberi, malaria, just to name two. Over 400 men died per mile of construction of that railway.  Then of course there was the mass killing of many prisoners, some of which preceded the 1944 order by the Japanese Government to kill all prisoners and leave no trace as the Allies advanced island by island, territory by territory.  Such mass killings is what led the United States to undertake the famous raid at Cabanatuan.  

Construction of the Burma-Thailand Railway, by Allied Slave Labor

Each camp seemed to have different methods of torture, but a few things were common:  undernourishment, if any really edible food at all, lack of clothing--most all required to wear the clothes in which they were captured even in the cold climate mining ores in northern Japan. These clothes became rags, and particularly in the jungles, many then had no clothes to wear. Even though Red Cross care packages were to be distributed once a week, most only saw one such package during their up to 3+ years in captivity.  The only time decent clothes could be worn was the rare visit by the Red Cross.  Footwear was not replaced when it wore out.  The slave laborers were transported from the Philippines and other islands to varied work locations at the homeland, or on the mainland (such as to work on the Burma-Thai Railway) by merchant ships unmarked as to carrying POWs and hence the ships became targets of Allied air forces. (The Geneva Accords required prisoner ships to be properly marked.)  How they were treated and packed into merchant ships is another story, but so many were crammed into a small space such that they became known as Hell ships. Seldom were they let up for fresh air.  By the end of 1942 Japan had 26,943 US prisoners.  Over 25,000 US citizens would serve as slave labor employed by over 72 Japanese corporations.  The Cabantuan prisoner's were considered to ill to travel and to be forced into slave labor on the Burma-Thai railroad or in Japan. 

Austrialian POW, slave labor in Japanese Mine

My professor, was a civilian construction worker at Wake Island at the time of his capture, and he was sent to Japan to work in the ship yards.  He lost much of his hearing working on the hulls of the ships.  By the approved accords for treatment of civilians and prisoners, he and other civilian men, women and children should have been sent back to their home country.  Japan did not do this--these persons became hostages; and not being military perhaps POW is the wrong term.  They were pure and simple slave labor, if that is how a guest of the Emperor is treated, how would they treat a non guest?  The skill set of US men were highly valued by the Japanese.  The country and its corporations needed the slave labor to mine the ores, build the ships, and make the fabric for the Japanese war machine.  They were forced to produce products to be used against their own countrymen.  Several did what they could to sabotage their work, such as happening to break a machine, or putting small holes in oil barrels so the oil would drain out during transport.  Although quotas still had to be met regardless of frailty or working conditions. I see this similar to the Jewish slave labor during the the of Moses--the movie the "Ten Commandments" has them making bricks without straw.

Two Mitsui Mine Slave Laborers

Command is what the Japanese did well.  Companies would apply for laborers to fill their workforce needs.  The book Unjust Enrichment, goes through a few stories of the many Japanese corporations who used Allied slave labor:  Mitsui. Mitsubishi, Showa Denko, NKK, and Kawasaki.  All are large conglomerates built in part by Allied slave labor.  Many companies at some point misrepresented their involvement in slave labor in WWII in order to secure construction and supply contracts in the United States.  Armed forces need materials, ammunition, and equipment.  The production of these items produces wealth for those entities, ie corporations, who obtained the contract.  The treatment of the prisoners by the Japanese and their corporations is beyond comprehension for a civilized society. Most report having received no pay and a few who were paid for a day or a week of the up to 3+ years of captivity had expenses deducted.  Prisoners were forced to sign time cards written in Japanese, a language they did not understand.   At one company so many men died that they stopped having funeral services since the funerals ate too much into the workday.  

Mitsui Mine

Even more difficult to explain was the treatment of the men when they were freed from captivity.  US General MacArthur made sure to get to all the POW camps as quick as possible to free the men before they mass killings could take place.  As the treaty was being signed, forces were on the move to the near 200 locations.  Although the Japanese would  only identify just over half of the actual prison/slave labor camps.  Yet, the Truman Administration in negotiating the final treaty would not allow reparations to be paid to the men, and Armed Forces brass threatened court marital of any who made their stories known.  The private corporations and their executives were not listed as war criminals, and neither was the Emperor.  It was not uncommon for ships carrying the former POW's to be kept at dock until dark so the emaciated men could disembark to avoid the public seeing their condition. The Truman Administration was concerned about public outrage, so the government hid their condition.  Of course, undertaking manual labor in extreme conditions and malnourished led to many of the POW having a permanent malady, such as that professor's hearing loss, or permanent disability.  Some were beaten so bad their bones became misaligned.

3 POWs at Fukeda #3 camp.  Middle man is being held up by
a person behind him.  All would die before freedom came.
Photo taken by a fellow POW who built a makeshift camera in which he
confiscated X-ray film to obtain the image

The US was outsmarted by the Japanese. The lead US negotiator, a good friend of former US President F Roosevelt, had limited knowledge of Japan; as one commentator said, his knowledge was limited to chow mein noodles.  Other countries sent persons who were knowledgeable of Japanese customs and methods. The trump card played by the Japanese was that they threatened to become a communist system if their corporations and emperor were subjected to war crime trials.  (We can only speculate, if not for Allied slave labor during the war, and American money after the war would Japan have become another version of North Korea?)  Not that conviction would have earned much of a penalty.  Those that were tried and convicted (some to be imprisoned for over 20 years) of war crimes had sentences commuted by the Japanese government shortly after the end of the US occupation in 1952.  All by 1958.

Some of the Emperor's Guests

The men subjected to slave labor are fast disappearing, and only a few of their stories have been told to our nation.  German companies were made to pay billions in reparations, Japanese companies, who used much more in terms of POW slave labor have not.  In fact, some reparations the Japanese paid citizens of other countries used US funds sent in 1944 to the Red Cross to purchase supplies for the POW's.  Japan would not allow this money to be used to purchase items of clothing, medicine and food for the men.  Instead the Japanese hoarded the money and would use it for their own purposes.    Social justice is a big issue in the world today, but no Subaru driving social justice warrior has taken up the claims of US slave labor to assist and enrich Japan's corporations and its Emperor.  These corporations have a great deal of our wealth, could they not spare some to assist those who gave so much to enrich those corporations?   The cruelty and brutality of the Japanese to the Emperor's slave laborers was only matched by the perseverance of those laborers at the lowest time of their lives.  

Emperor Hirohito, who served until his death in 1989.

Sources:  

Hornfischer, James D. Ship of Ghosts, 2006 Bantam Books, NY NY.

Holmes, Linda Goetz.  Unjust Enrichment: How Japan's Companies Built Postwar Fortunes 
Using American POWs.  2001 Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA.

Images from Google Images.