The purpose of writing this research paper is to draw a correlation between attitude, medical treatment and survival of Japanese Prisoners of War during World War II. The sources used to write this paper are mostly from survivors’ memoirs with secondary sources filling in the gaps. Its focus centers on POW camps in Burma, Singapore, Japan, China and the Philippines. Due to the nature of the topic, the subject matter concentrates on the relationship between the Japanese, POW doctors and their patients.

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Shortly after World War II began, thousands of Americans, British, Dutch and Australians were captured throughout the South Pacific. Conditions in all POW camps were horrific. The overall death rates in Japanese POW camps were twenty seven percent. In comparison, death rates in German POW camps were only four percent.1 The main contributing factor to this high mortality rate was the lack of proper medical care. Allied POW doctors had few medical supplies to deal with the tropical diseases and injuries sustained from beatings given by Japanese guards. They had to make do with whatever they had available to treat their patients often seeking alternative solutions in the jungle and outsmarting their captors. Common diseases suffered by the POWs were dysentery, malaria, beriberi and other diseases common to the tropics and caused by poor sanitation and malnutrition.[2] Since there was little medicine to treat disease, improving attitude became a part of medical treatment.

Attitude played a major role in the medical treatment of POWs. It often determined whether a sick or injured POW received any treatment at all. The shortage of medicine made it necessary for POW doctors to decide who received treatment and who did not. If a patient had a poor attitude, the POW doctor figured it would be a waste of medicine to treat him. The POW doctor assumed the man would die anyway because he lacked an attitude with the will to live. [3] Therefore, morale was essential for survival. A man with a poor attitude often would not exercise, lay idle, lose his appetite, refuse to eat and then die. [4] It was observed by most survivors of POW camps that those POWs who had a good attitude, one that evoked hope and self worth had a better chance of survival than those POWs who gave up hope and lost their sense of worth.

A good attitude was often the difference between life and death in Japanese POW camps. It governed the medical treatment POWs received. The morale of the POWs often reflected the attitude of their medical personnel and vise versa. Since there was little conventional medicine available, POW doctors used alternative avenues to treat fellow POWs which included promoting healthy attitudes. POW doctors relied upon their resourcefulness and innovativeness to save lives. Attitude became an important process in determining the medical treatment of POWs. In their memoirs, ex-POWs concurred that those POWs who had an attitude that showed hope and self worth had a better chance of survival than those POWs that did not.

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