Show how america treats axis war prisoners in concentration camps throughout U S good treatment pays dividends to ca captor tor nations natio ns HAT is our treatment of V prisoners of war are officers overpaid do they have to work these and many other questions are being asked as the total of axis prisoners mounts A As a matter of fact the prisoner problem has become a real one since the mass surrender of italians in tunisia after sicily capitulated gen eisenhower Elsen hower had on his hands the staggering total of axis prisoners quite a job for any mans armyl army while it is true that prisoners are enemies of this country and many have been directly responsible for the loss of american lives they cannot be treated entirely as enemies but must be treated as soldiers rather than as criminals always with this thought in the background the treatment we accord e nemy enemy ca captives p will in some measure at least determine the kind of treatment given american soldiers who have been unfortunate enough to fall into enemy hands there are at least two other reasons for the good treatment of prisoners aside from humanitarian considerations one based upon a treaty made at geneva on july 27 1929 and the other a purely psychological ch one namely that war weary and underfed troops may be tempted to lay down their arms to an enemy who aho feeds them generously t and gives them safe haven K geneva conference at the geneva convention which was vas ratified by 37 countries which toy by the way did not include either japan or russia certain rules on treatment and behavior were formulated under the provisions of the geneva conference soldier prisoners are required to work but officers r are re not the amoun amount t of time a prisoner must work is based on the number of hours put in by free labor in the adjoining territory and one day a week Is to be a day of rest food and clothing must be provided by the detaining army occupational classification is determined ter mined by the prison prisoners ers physical makeup for instance the prisoner who was formerly engaged as a clerk or teacher should not be put f at hard labor this pro provision vision however has been largely ignored in axis s countries where many a schol arly aly soldier grinds out a day that taxes his strength sorely in every concentration camp many anany different crafts an and d trades are plied by the prisoners but in no case ase do they work on projects directly connected with the ore war ef lort forte esca as a precaution against sabotage payment for labor Is at the rate of 80 cents a day for the ordinary soldier foldier here in the united states where abere we have some axis prisoners scattered throughout the country in 22 camps the rate of pay tor for officers ranges from 20 a month to 40 a month officers who have bave been assigned no work gt get paid anyway at the regular scale at some of the he camps prisoners are ar e kept within by double barbed wire vire enclosures armed guards pace lack back and forth outside to make sure that au all is well y fed army rations fk prisoners in the U S army camps are fed the regular army field X rations in this respect they tare fare much better than general wainwright and his gallant band of de lenders who laid down their arms on corregidor only after food and water supplies had been cut off the japanese diet consists mainly of rice and there is reason to believe that the heroes of bataan and corregidor have suffered considerably from malnutrition since they fell into enemy hands the japs evidently have nothing much better to offer fo lor r even a an the warriors of guadal canal and new guinea have been SAI forced to rely upon rice as their mainstay kiska and attu aatu furnished mute evidence i e of the japs utter dependence pen peri dence upon rice as a fighting staple al t g za 71 pictured here are some om of the 2000 german prisoners of 0 war ctr who wb are r housed at t camp breckenridge ky they are marching to the mess mei ball germin german prisoners are closely guarded at all 11 II times for unlike the th tuni italians they refuse refus to play ball and nd are re confidently arrogant no ant most moa of them are glad to work to relieve the boredom of inactivity while the japanese government tentatively agreed to certain propos propose als from this country with regard to the treatment of prisoners their attitude has been far from satisfactory A case in point was the shooting of the U S fliers filers who born bombed lied tokyo with general Doo doolittles littles squadron which took off from shan gri la aircraft carrier hornet and who had the extreme misfortune of either being shot ou out t of the skies or forced down tor for other reasons These prisoners it was later announced by the japs were shot contrary 1 to all the rules of war as a deterrent to other american fliers who might engage to in the bombing of japan this violation of the international rules of war has not however worked and japan may well tremble dinits boots for the day of 0 reckoning which is drawing closer with each dawn bombing perimeters peri meters are drawing closer to the heart ot of the Japan japanese esp empire day by day the bulk ot of the work done by axis captives in the united states Is agricultural this field ot of course offers the least opportunity for sabotage when captives engage in this work they do not in any sense compete with native labor but are simply supplementary to it farmers arrange with their county farm arm agent for or the employment of 0 prisoners the number Is usually small and the prisoners are scattered over wide areas thus removing from this practice all element of hazard generally speaking axis prisoners with the exception of the jap of whom we have only a very small number are a contented lot they have better food clothing and shelter than they had bad under the nazi banner in a certain sense they have more liberties and tor for them the war is over B 26 51 ar auders at a U S base somewhere in engi ano d this new twin medium bomber has recently been introduced in europe |