This watercolor, “Commonplace Beatings,” was drawn by Sgt. Frank Fujita, Jr. during his time in POW Camp Fukuoka #2. Fujita was captured with the rest of his battalion in Java in 1942. He refused to change his name despite fears that his captors would discover his Japanese heritage and execute him. Fujita witnessed starvation, torture, beatings, and more in the POW camps of Japan. He used his artistic talent to draw the scenes around him and kept a secret diary, even though it was punishable by death. When the Japanese eventually realized that Fujita was half Japanese, they tried to force him to learn their language and later moved him to Omori prison camp in Tokyo to participate in propaganda broadcasts. He refused to learn Japanese and wrote worthless and unusable scripts, defying his captors. After the Japanese accepted unconditional surrender in August 1945, Fujita and the other POWs were liberated from Omori and taken to the USS Missouri. They were on board when the Japanese signed the official surrender the next day. Fujita’s drawings and POW diary were utilized after the war in the prosecution of war criminals before they were finally returned to him.
"Commonplace Beatings"
This section explains the American POW experience in Japanese prison camps during World War Two.
Overview
There were over 27,000 American military POWs in the Pacific War, spread across the Pacific from Java to Japan itself, and even in isolated areas such as Wake Island.
The Japanese considered it shameful to surrender or be captured alive by the enemy, and most of the guards viewed their captives with contempt. Beatings and torture were common. Rations were usually rotten or pest-ridden and inadequate, and only grew worse as the war progressed. Prisoners were often shipped to and from camps in “hellships”, with hundreds of men crammed into a space meant for fifty. Dozens died during each passage.
American POWs just after liberation from a Japanese camp. Image from the National Parks Service.
The Geneva Convention of 1929 and the Hague Convention both set rules for conduct in war and treatment of prisoners, but Japan never ratified them. They agreed to abide by the rules in 1942, but never upheld this promise. Contrary to the Conventions, POWs were often forced to do hard labor towards the war effort, even when the prisoners were so sick and weak they could hardly walk. Over 11,000 POWs died in the prison camps, a mortality rate of more than 40%. Those who survived suffered from malnutrition, improperly-healed injuries, severe weight loss, and a host of diseases such as beriberi and dysentery.
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Commonplace Beatings by Frank Fujita, Jr.
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Commonplace Beatings by Frank Fujita, Jr.
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Commonplace Beatings by Frank Fujita, Jr.
"Commonplace Beatings
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Imprisoned: Incarceration in the Pacific War
Hundreds of thousands of people, both military and civilian, were incarcerated by both sides during World War II. Military became POWs, while civilians became internees. All had one thing in common; t...
