The book of World War II mentions about the atrocities towards the death camp slaves. Life in Indonesian death camps was a deathly combination of hard work, malnutrition and harsh punishments all taking place in the intense tropical heat of the region. In Japan itself, there were approximately 130 camps but it was not just western prisoners who suffered. An estimated 100,000 Asian labourers died in the construction of the Death Railway. The camps created by the Japanese were mostly ad-hoc work camps designed to cope with the overwhelming numbers of prisoners. James Taylor, of the Imperial War Museum in London, said: "As well as the military significance, the railway and other projects also helped to solve what to do with all these people that had been captured."
The Japanese death camps were normally surrounded by barbed wire and high wooden fences and anyone trying to escape would be executed in front of other prisoners, meaning very few attempts were ever made. The Japanese did not sign up to the Geneva Convention, which governs the rights of PoWs, and prisoners were forced to learn Japanese to understand commands. It is said that failure to comply with instructions, often made up on the whim of the camp commander, would lead to serious beatings during this WWII story.
At the beginning of the day a daily roll-call, known as the Tenko, was held each day and prisoners had to call out their number in Japanese. Most prisoners were put to work in mines, fields and factories and would be given a meager diet of 600 calories a day on which they had to carry out 12 hours of hard labour. A typical meal consisted of Soya beans and seaweed, with meat or fish only served once a month. Many of the deaths among POWs were caused by starvation and disease as well as overwork and punishments and those who survived left malnourished and several stones lighter than when they arrived. All about these bitter camp experiences were explained clearly through a kid’s view on WWII.
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