Japan’s Prison Camps

It’s hard for most of us to realize the extent of the Japanese Empire in World War II. Every dot on the map below marks a POW camp, excluding those in Korea, Manchuria, and Japan.

That is why, when President Truman was shown Japan’s directive to the commandants of all these camps ordering them to execute all prisoners of war, and to not leave a trace, he responded by ordering the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. To this day it haunts me that all those innocent Japanese civilians were killed to save us prisoners of war.

Updated August 2011