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Summary
Summary
On December 6, 1941, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki was one of a handful of men selected to skipper midget subs on a suicide mission to breach Pearl Harbors defenses. When his equipment malfunctioned, he couldnt find the entrance to the harbor. He hit several reefs, eventually splitting the sub, and swam to shore some miles from Pearl Harbor. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up on the beach by two Japanese American MPs on patrol. Sakamaki became Prisoner No. 1 of the Pacific War.
Japans no-surrender policy did not permit becoming a POW. Sakamaki and his fellow soldiers and sailors had been indoctrinated to choose between victory and a heroic death. While his comrades had perished, he had survived. By becoming a prisoner of war, Sakamaki believed he had brought shame and dishonor on himself, his family, his community, and his nation, in effect relinquishing his citizenship. Sakamaki fell into despair and, like so many Japanese POWs, begged his captors to kill him.
Based on the authors interviews with dozens of former Japanese POWs along with memoirs only recently coming to light, The Anguish of Surrender tells one of the great unknown stories of World War II. Beginning with an examination of Japans prewar ultranationalist climate and the harsh code that precluded the possibility of capture, the author investigates the circumstances of surrender and capture of men like Sakamaki and their experiences in POW camps.
Many POWs, ill and starving after days wandering in the jungles or hiding out in caves, were astonished at the superior quality of food and medical treatment they received. Contrary to expectations, most Japanese POWs, psychologically unprepared to deal with interrogations, provided information to their captors. Trained Allied linguists, especially Japanese Americans, learned how to extract intelligence by treating the POWs humanely. Allied intelligence personnel took advantage of lax Japanese security precautions to gain extensive information from captured documents. A few POWs, recognizing Japans certain defeat, even assisted the Allied war effort to shorten the war. Far larger numbers staged uprisings in an effort to commit suicide. Most sought to survive, suffered mental anguish, and feared what awaited them in their homeland.
These deeply human stories follow Japanese prisoners through their camp experiences to their return to their welcoming families and reintegration into postwar society. These stories are told here for the first time in English.
Author Notes
Ulrich "Rick" Straus lived a total of twenty-one years in Japan, first as a child between 1933 and 1940 in Tokyo, then as a U.S. Army language officer during the Occupation, when he participated in the trial of Japan's major war criminals. He was Consul General of Okinawa from 1978 to 1982 and retired from the Foreign Service in 1987
Reviews (1)
Choice Review
In this well-conceived work, Straus discusses Japanese policy on POWs and the impact of the Imperial Army's Field Service Code prefatory to examinations of the experiences of individual POWs, many of whom he interviewed. The author is uniquely qualified to address this topic: prior to entering the Foreign Service, he spent 21 years in Japan in addition to serving as an Army language officer during WW II. He brings his experiences and scholarly talents to bear in this examination of the unique circumstances confronted by Japanese POWs. Though comparatively few Japanese endured wartime captivity (close to 39,000), the great majority of those who did were not die-hard fanatics desiring only death; rather, they adapted to new circumstances, frequently cooperating with their captors. Many found that upon returning to postwar Japan, they were not ostracized as they had feared. US military Japanese language training programs, the author asserts, were crucial to gaining useful intelligence from POWs. Based on English and Japanese-language sources as well as interviews with former POWs, this cogent and well-written study offers a thorough exploration of the many dilemmas facing Japanese POWs. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Most libraries. B. T. Browne Broward Community College
Table of Contents
Foreword | p. vii |
Preface | p. ix |
Acknowledgments | p. xix |
Introduction | p. 3 |
1 Prisoner Number One | p. 8 |
2 Japan's Policy on Prisoners of War | p. 17 |
3 Indoctrination into the Senjinkun | p. 30 |
4 Honorable Death or Shameful Life | p. 48 |
5 America's Secret Weapons: The Army and Navy Japanese Language Schools | p. 89 |
6 The Interrogations | p. 116 |
7 A Few Very Special POWs | p. 150 |
8 Uprisings in the Stockades | p. 171 |
9 Everyday Life in the Stockades | p. 196 |
10 Returning Home Alive | p. 234 |
11 Reflections on Japan's Wartime No-Surrender Policy | p. 249 |
Notes | p. 257 |
Bibliography | p. 265 |
Index | p. 271 |