Prisoners of War

Prisoners of War

During the second World War Japan attacked many parts of China which caused Winston Churchill to ask the Canadian troops to protect Hong Kong which at this time was a Britsh colony. When the Candians got to Japan they were badly out numbered 50,000 to 15,000 which caused them to surrender on Christmas Day, 1941. The Japanese soldiers did not respect people who surrendered so they took many of the Canadian soldiers in and held them as prisoners of war (POW). Since the Japanese soldiers did not respect people who surrendered the Canadians were treated very poorly. Out of all the countries that held prisoners from the war the Japanese soldiers had a 33% death rate which was 2nd highest in World War 2 behind the Rusians with 57%. The POW's in Japan were forced to work or do various tasks for the Japanese on very little food because of the diet the Japanese soldiers had put them on which caused many of the Candians to die of starvation. If the soldiers were not put to work they would either be exacuted, beat and evetually murdered or used for medical experetmantations. Japan did not believe in the Geneva Convention which was the protection and medical needs that POW's must have access to which caused many of the Canadian Prisoners to die. As you can see the the Candians were treated very badly by the Japanese soldiers because they did not respect people who gave up and because they did not beleive in the Geneva Convention.