WW II POWS IN AMERICA AND ABROAD

A scholarly examination of a neglected aspect of World War II: prisoner-of-war camps in the United States.

In 1943, American forces were fighting with the British against German and Italian soldiers in North Africa, and they confronted a logistical problem—there was no means of securely imprisoning captured enemy combatants locally. The United States took charge of 50,000 of them and shipped them stateside—the first of 435,000 German, Italian, and Japanese prisoners of war who would be interned on American soil. Eventually, nearly 1,000 permanent camps were established across the country, and an elaborate system of incarceration was constructed in accordance with Geneva Convention protocols. Many German soldiers reacted to this in a way that may surprise readers: “They were extremely relieved to be in America even under these conditions rather than the unpleasant alternatives, including dreadful conditions their counterparts were experiencing fighting the Soviets.” Former U.S. Navy officer Gary Slaughter’s meticulous study, edited by Joanne Fletcher Slaughter, examines the various education programs that were available to U.S.–based POWs as well as attempts to “reprogram” ideologically committed Nazis. He also documents the internment camps that falsely imprisoned Japanese Americans as well as ethnic Germans and Italians, and for the sake of comparison, he explores the experiences of Americans incarcerated in camps in Germany, Japan, and Italy. Overall, this is a remarkably detailed exposition; one even learns exactly what an average prisoner in the United States ate for breakfast each morning. Moreover, the author provides a cleareyed discussion of the ensuing national debate regarding the excellent treatment that American forces gave to enemy POWs, and how it stood in stark contrast to deplorable conditions that U.S. soldiers endured abroad. Gary Slaughter’s prose is unerringly clear but also quite plain, even featureless, making the book feel more like an encyclopedia than a broader historical narrative at times. Nonetheless, it’s a well-researched introduction to an element of the war that hasn’t received sufficient scrutiny.

A thorough and exacting historical analysis of wartime incarceration.