“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.” — President George Washington

November 11th, 1919 was the first observance of Armistice Day, it was created to honor the fallen from WW1. In 1938 it was made a legal holiday. In 1945 it was changed to honor all military veterans.

I wanted to share some stories of POW through the history of the U.S. There have been over 500,000 Prisoners of War held thru out the history of the U.S. Many did not make it home. I wanted to share this on Veteran’s Day as I feel they gave a lot more than most ever will. 

Prison ships of the Revolutionary war

During the Revolutionary, War prisoner were held on prison ships on New York harbor. They were held in some of the worst conditions, and at one point, 12 prisoners were dying a night, from diseases like smallpox, typhoid, and yellow fever. By the end of the war, 11,000 soldiers would die in British ships, more than were killed in all the battles combined (4,500). Many died a slow and painful death within the confines of the HMS Jersey and other prison ships. During the evacuation of New York, British forces abandoned and set fire to all the prison ships in the harbor. Eight thousand prisoners were still onboard when it was set on fire. For years after the war, bones continued to wash up on the Brooklyn shore. In 1902, while extending one of the docks, workers at the Brooklyn Navy Yard unknowingly pierced the hull of the ship. Her resting place was finally discovered.

www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/the-hms-jersey

U.S. Civil War- Andersonville

Andersonville Prison, formerly known as Camp Sumter, was a Confederate military prison that only existed for 14 months during the American Civil War. It opened in early 1864 near Andersonville, Georgia, and closed in April of 1965. The prisoner’s lack of food, poor sanitation, disease, and also praying on each other, made Andersonville the worst prison of the war. Of the 56,000 prisoner-of-war deaths that occurred during the war, 13,000 were at Andersonville Prison.

www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-prison-camps

WW2 POW of the Japanese

There were more than 350,000 prisoners captured by the Japanese in the Philippines, more than half were native, the natives were dying at such a high rate, that the Japanese released them. They said they were releasing them for propaganda purposes. Over 140,000 allied prisoners (U.S., UK, Aussies, Dutch, Canada, and Kiwis) were held in the Japanese POW camps. Of these, one in three died from starvation, work, and punishments. The death rate was 27% compared to 4% of POW help by German and Italy. About 5 million Chines died in captivity; over 25 million died at the hands of the Japanese.  

www.marlowesbooks.com/Hell%27s-Heroes.-The-Forgotten-Story-Of-The-Worst-P.O.W.-Camp-In-Japan-Maynard-Roger-Book-158416

Korea and Vietnam

As we started to fight communism, a new type of prison of war camp was encounter. Now, prisoners began to be “reprogramed.” North Korean, the Chinese and North Vietnamese guards, used extreme torture to try and “reprogram” the prisons. The most notorious prison during the Vietnam war was the H?a Lò, a name loosely translated as “hell hole.” It was nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton by the POWs. It is infamous as one of if not the worst prisons in history. From the beginning, U.S. POWs endured miserable conditions, including inadequate food, unsanitary conditions, and torture. Although North Vietnam was a signatory of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, which demanded “decent and humane treatment” of prisoners of war, severe torture methods were employed, such as rope bindings, irons, beatings, and prolonged solitary confinement. The North said that since the US never declared war, they didn’t have to follow the Geneva Convention.  In 1972 jane fonda visited the Hanoi Hilton. While she was there, she called out some of the prisons as faking being mistreated and being hungry. She also posed on an NVA anti-aircraft gun. When she returned, she called out returning POWs “hypocrites and liars,” adding, “These were not men who had been tortured. These were not men who had been starved. These were not men who had been brainwashed”. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/500710.Two_Souls_Indivisible

mohmuseum.org/you-are-not-forgotten-national-pow-mia-recognition-day