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Prisoners of the Japanese in World War II
By Van Waterford
Published by McFarland & Co Inc, North Carolina.
Price £49.95, 1994, 395 pages.
Van Waterford is the penname of William F Wannoy who was taken POW in
the former Dutch East Indies as a 16 years old boy, and was on the Junyo
Maru when it was sunk by an American submarine on 18 September 1944 with
the loss of 5640 lives, mostly Javanese conscript labour. This was the
largest maritime disaster in world history.
This book is intended for scholars, researchers and librarians who are
looking for basic information on this subject in one volume. It is in
two parts. The first is a wide ranging review of many aspects of the life
and treatment of POWs: Japanese military history and culture, life and
routine in a POW camp, the psychological and medical aspects of imprisonment
, war crimes, and conscript native labour. For American readers there
is a chapter on the US National Historic Site and Museum, and their POW
medal.
The second and certainly the most interesting part is a list and description
of all the camps, large and small, used by the Japanese to hold POWs,
both military and civilian, throughout the Far East, and the ships used
to transport them. The description of most of the camps is limited to
their size, the numbers and nationalities held in them, and the work to
which POWs were put. Facts about ships include the numbers and nationalities
of POWs transported in them and the dates and routes they travelled. The
numbers of men and women who died aboard ship, or when a ship was sunk
is recorded, and makes grim reading. Many personal accounts by POWs are
included. This mass of facts is well documented, and the many quoted sources
are a valuable secondary source of reference.
Van Waterford has obviously had to trawl an enormous number of private
and public papers, books and diaries to assemble so much information in
a single readable volume; in doing so he has produced a standard reference
on this subject.
The book is still in print and can be bought through Amazon.co.uk.
There is at least one copy in the British Library which can be ordered
through local libraries.
Review by Tony Bushell
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