On December 6, 1941, Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki was one of a handful of
men selected to skipper midget subs on a suicide mission to breach
Pearl Harbor's defenses. When his equipment malfunctioned, he
couldn't find the entrance to the harbor. He hit several reefs,
eventually splitting the sub, and swam to shore some miles from
Pearl Harbor. In the early dawn of December 8, he was picked up on
the beach by two Japanese American MPs on patrol. Sakamaki became
Prisoner No. 1 of the Pacific War. Japan's no-surrender policy did
not permit becoming a POW. Sakamaki and his fellow soldiers and
sailors had been indoctrinated to choose between victory and a
heroic death. While his comrades had perished, he had survived. By
becoming a prisoner of war, Sakamaki believed he had brought shame
and dishonor on himself, his family, his community, and his nation,
in effect relinquishing his citizenship. Sakamaki fell into despair
and, like so many Japanese POWs, begged his captors to kill him.
Based on the author's interviews with dozens of former Japanese
POWs along with memoirs only recently coming to light, The Anguish
of Surrender tells one of the great unknown stories of World War
II. Beginning with an examination of Japan's prewar
ultranationalist climate and the harsh code that precluded the
possibility of capture, the author investigates the circumstances
of surrender and capture of men like Sakamaki and their experiences
in POW camps. Many POWs, ill and starving after days wandering in
the jungles or hiding out in caves, were astonished at the superior
quality of food and medical treatment they received. Contrary to
expectations, most Japanese POWs, psychologically unprepared to
deal with interrogations, provided information to their captors.
Trained Allied linguists, especially Japanese Americans, learned
how to extract intelligence by treating the POWs humanely. Allied
intelligence personnel took advantage of lax Japanese security
precautions to gain extensive information from captured documents.
A few POWs, recognizing Japan's certain defeat, even assisted the
Allied war effort to shorten the war. Far larger numbers staged
uprisings in an effort to commit suicide. Most sought to survive,
suffered mental anguish, and feared what awaited them in their
homeland. These deeply human stories follow Japanese prisoners
through their camp experiences to their return to their welcoming
families and reintegration into postwar society. These stories are
told here for the first time in English.
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