Prisoners of War

       The photo above was taken at the Aomori prison camp near Yokohama, Japan. This is an American Navy-man who was captured by the Japanese during World War II. Soldiers that are captured by enemies and taken hostage are given the title of a “Prisoner of War”, otherwise known as a POW. POWs were captured usually for the purpose of to obtaining information from an enemy soldier. Another reason that soldiers are captured and held as POWs is to be used as a hostage. Hostages can be valuable to the enemy because they can use them as incintives.  To get the information from the soldiers they were physically and mentally tortured. Methods of physical torture include: hanging people by their toes for days on end, hanging people by their tongues and many more painful tortures. The picture above specifically depicts this POW as being severely malnourished. Starvation is a common method of physical torture. According to Sarah Wildman, Jere Dyk set out to Afghanistan as a journalist to observe the going's on in the war in Afghanistan. Shortly after his arrival, Dyk was captured by the Taliban and became a prisoner of war. Dyk claimed that he was fed pretty well but they “barely saw the sky and barely breathed fresh air.”

       Prisoners of war are also tortured mentally. The Taliban's method of torture is usually more mental rather than physical. The Japanese, in WWII, used more physical methods of torture. The Taliban posts videos of their American POWs as an incentive to draw information from the American government. Sargeant Bowe Bergdahl was captured in Aghanistan in 2009. The Taliban released numerous videos of Bergdahl pleading his release. Bergdahl pleades “Release me please, bring me home. I'm begging you” in one video. American government obviously wants to bring home its POWs, but the Taliban do not negotiate easily. A common method of mental torture is threatening loved ones. The captor can implant thoughts into the prisoner's mind, and this method of torture can be just as unbearable as the physical methods.

        This is a picture of John McCain as a POW in recovery. John McCain ejected himeslf out of his plane when it started going down. He landed in a lake and sank to the bottom. McCain said that he pushed his way to the top to get a breath (2 times). All the while, his right leg and both of his arms were broken. After engaging his inflatable life preserver, McCain floated to the top where he was captured by two Vietnamese soldiers. Not only did the Vietnamese induce extreme physical torture on McCain, but they also tortured him mentally to the point of a suicide attempt. After 5 years of intense physical and mental torture, McCain agreed to sign a confession. In order to be released McCain reluctantly wrote "I am a black criminal and I have performed the deeds of an air pirate. I almost died and the Vietnamese people saved my life, thanks to the doctors." McCain also stated that “over there I learned that every man has a breaking point, and I had reached mine”. This 'breaking point' is referring to when he mentally gave up. He had taken enough phyiscal and mental beatings after 5 years, and had reached his breaking point.

        

      Every time a read a story about what a POW experiences I become sympathetic for the soldiers that fight in our military. POW stories really help me appreciate the risk that soldiers put themselves in, everyday, to maintain peace and freedom for America. This topic is so relevant for Veteran's day and is a subject that needs to be addressed when discussing any topic about war. I think this terrible occurrence often gets over looked because we don't hear about a lot of POWs being captured; however, since WWII there have been 73,000 MIA's in the American military. I wanted to include this subject matter in at least one of my blog posts because I have a high amount of respect not only for anyone who serves in the military, but especially for prisoners of war.