In the Second World War, there were not only prisoner-of-war camps, labor camps, concentration camps and extermination camps. Some camps are set up to prevent enemy spies. Basically, the state at that time would detain civilians that they thought might pose a threat to national security. Usually, these civilians are immigrants from the country's wartime enemies. In the United States, for example, they detained civilians of Japanese, German and Italian descent. While the definition is a bit vague and confusing, we will refer to these camps as "internment camps." Of course, the term "concentration camp" also applies, but people often associate concentration camps with cruelty and high mortality.
Today, we'll cover some of the internment camps that spread around the world during World War II. In the United States, as many as 120,000 people of Japanese descent, about 11,500 of German descent and more than 1,880 of Italian descent were sent to internment camps throughout the war. These include residents and citizens born overseas and the United States. U.S. Lieutenant General John DeWitt, who has a fairly strict view of the Japanese issue, said: "I don't want any of them here." They are a dangerous factor. Their loyalty cannot be determined. We must worry about the presence of the Japanese until he is erased from the map. ”
From March 1942 to November 1945, Manzanar Camp in Injo County, California, hosted more than 11,000 Japanese Americans. Detainees live in tarmac barracks with little privacy and little protection. They often have to queue up to eat and use public toilets and showers. They were surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers. However, children can go to school in camps, while adults can work in low-paying camp jobs, such as producing camouflage nets and rubber. Some even raise livestock and grow fruits and vegetables. There is also a golf course. Of course, the quality of life varies from camp to camp.
The situation in Canada is not much different. More than 22,000 Japanese Canadians, or about 90 percent of the country's Japanese population, were resettled and detained during the war. Although the Canadian government sees about 31,000 Italian-Canadians as potential enemies with links to fascism. In reality, only 600 to 700 people were sent to internment camps. The place with the most Italian-Canadians is the Petawawa Camp military base in Ontario, where there are also some German civilians. The camp consists of 12 barracks, each of which can accommodate about 60 detainees. A watchtower and two barbed wire fences surrounded the camp, like the Manzana Detention Center, which was like a community where people worked in the camp. Still, this is not easy for detainees and their families. In an interview, Chester Capponi, an Italian-Canadian, said the government had taken his father for two and a half years, but did not tell his family why or when he would be released. His father was also in poor health during his detention and could only communicate with the outside world through censorship letters.
During World War II, India remained under British rule, and Germans, Italians, Austrians and other nationalities who had become British citizens entered India in different ways and were imprisoned in various camps in the country. One of them was the Dehradun Central Internment Camp, where the detainees were divided into sections separating pro-Nazi Germans, anti-Nazi Germans, communist Germans and Italians.
The Empire of Japan maintained hundreds of internment camps throughout the war, many of them on the Japanese mainland, but also many on the territories they occupied. Many of them were mixed camps, hosting prisoners of war and civilians; Batulindang Camp in Sarawak, Borneo Island, is one of the former. As you might expect from Japan during World War II, the camps were brutal. Malaysian writer Kitkin summed it up well: "Tough conditions ... Test to the limits of human survival struggles. Food shortages, disease and sickness, death, forced labour, harsh treatment and miserable living quarters occur every day ... "In general, civilian internees are treated slightly better than prisoners of war. Some choose to cultivate the land and do a variety of jobs, including collecting firewood, going to the toilet and cooking. Some of the detainees were forced to do labor, work in timber yards and build roads and runways. Many of the civilians were Dutch and British, including Catholic priests and Catholic nuns. When the Australian 9th Division liberated the camp in September 1945, they released 396 male civilians and 237 women and children.
Similarly, the Germans detained Allied civilians in camps in Germany and some of the countries they occupied. In a castle in the German state of Württemberg, the Germans exterminated 700 psychiatric hospital patients, making way for 300 British citizens living in Poland between 1940 and 1941, and as many as 5,000 people, most of them British women and children, were held here. During this time, hundreds of people died from diseases such as food poisoning and frostbite.
Throughout the war, Australia maintained dozens of prisoner-of-war camps and internment camps, detaining some 7,000 Australians of Japanese, German and Italian descent. That's equivalent to more than 20 per cent of Australia's Italian population and 98 per cent of all Japanese in Australia, with a total of 1,140 Japanese detained. Australia also received some 8,000 detainees shipped by its allies.
On 10 July 1940, 2,542 "enemy men" left England on the passenger ship HMS Daniela. Of these, 2,036 were anti-Nazi German and Italian civilians, most of them Jews. After an uncomfortable voyage, the detainees arrived in Australia in early September 1940 and most of them were taken to a detention camp in Hay, New South Wales, on the 6th. In the course of their detention, they established a small town and owned their own currency. In December 1941, many of them were reclassified as "friendly people" and released. About 1,000 so-called "Danila boys" volunteered to join the Australian Army, and after the war, about 800 of them chose to establish a life in Australia. These include scientists, engineers, economists and artists who bring significant value to Australian culture.
Do you know how many civilians ended up in internment camps during World War II? Can you think of other countries that have internment camps?