A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
POWs cannot be held in cells or other forms of close confinement (except in connection with a criminal process or disciplinary sanctions). They can, however, be housed – interned – in camps to prevent their return to the battlefield. They must be released and repatriated without delay at the end of active hostilities.
At the peak of the war, Australia held more than 12,000 people in internment camps. Over the course of the war, internees included: 7000 Australian residents, including 1500 British nationals. 8000 people from overseas.
They were imprisoned in camps throughout Japanese-occupied territories in Borneo, Korea, Manchuria, Hainan, Rabaul, Ambon, Singapore, Timor, Java, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam and also Japan itself. At the end of the war only 13,872 of the POWs were recovered: one-third of the prisoners had died.
The estimated number of living POWs decreased from nearly 32,550 to about 29,350, caused mainly by estimated deaths among WW II and Korean POWs.
Thompson spent the next nine years (3,278 days) as a prisoner of war, first at the hands of the Viet Cong in the South Vietnam forests, until he was moved in 1967 to the Hanoi prison system. During his captivity, he was tortured, starved, and isolated from other American POWs.
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Of the 22,376 Australian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, some 8,031 died while in captivity. After the end of the war, War Crimes Trials were held to investigate reports of atrocities, massacres and other causes of death.
The most common form of punishment was face-slapping, often done with a hard instrument, such as a bamboo stick or a shovel. More severe beatings were also common.
By the war's end more than one in three of these prisoners – about 8,000 – had died. Most became victims of their captors' indifference and brutality.
However, in 1783 the American War of Independence ended. America refused to accept any more convicts so England had to find somewhere else to send their prisoners. Transportation to New South Wales was the solution.
Between 1788 and 1868, about 162,000 convicts were transported from Britain and Ireland to various penal colonies in Australia.
Between 1788 and 1868 more than 162,000 convicts were transported to Australia. Of these, about 7,000 arrived in 1833 alone. The convicts were transported as punishment for crimes committed in Britain and Ireland.
Article 118, first paragraph, of the 1949 Geneva Convention III provides: “Prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities.”
The most famous POW breakout is the 'Great Escape' in March 1944 from Stalag Luft III, a camp which held Allied aircrew.
A prisoner of war can legitimately try to escape from his captors. It is even considered by some that prisoners of war have a moral obligation to try to escape, and in most cases such attempts are of course motivated by patriotism.
The more remote the camp site the worse the food supply. The main food supplied by the Japanese was white rice. Sometimes this was supplemented with small quantities of 'vegetables' (often more like grass) and even smaller amounts of fish and meat. A typical meal was a thin broth of rice and vegetables.
Over 22,000 Australians became prisoners of war of the Japanese in south-east Asia. The wave of Japanese victories, ending with the capture of the Netherlands East Indies in March 1942, left in its wake a mass of Allied prisoners of war, including many Australians.
Living conditions and treatment varied between work parties, but treatment could be harsh. The barracks in the camps were sometimes overcrowded, filthy and susceptible to disease outbreaks. Australian prisoners in contact with the Red Cross Society could survive on food consignments sent from London every 2 weeks.
The Great Papago Escape was the largest Axis prisoner-of-war escape to occur from an American facility during World War II. On the night of December 23, 1944, twenty-five Germans tunneled out of Camp Papago Park, near Phoenix, Arizona, and fled into the surrounding desert.
Tue, 2019-04-30 11:11. A blue star on a white background indicated the person was MIA. A white star on a blue background indicated the person was a POW.
In 1973, the United States listed 2,646 Americans as unaccounted for from the entire Vietnam War. By October 2022, 1,582 Americans remained unaccounted for, of which 1,004 were classified as further pursuit, 488 as non-recoverable and 90 as deferred.
There are no known living POWs left in Vietnam from the American War. Many veterans and survivors of those terrible years have returned to the country to visit and pay respects to their peers left behind.