I think it is commendable that the name of the organization includes
Civilian Prisoners Of Wars (CPOW) as opposed to “internees”.
My dad was a member of the 511th PIR / 11th Airborne Div but
was not part of the rescue. He and my mom were good friends
with Jerry and Margaret Sams who were Los Banos prisoners.
The Sams resided about 4 miles from my parents near Grass
Valley, CA.
I interviewed the Sams for a college research paper in 2001.
Jerry Sams explained to me that he resisted the term “internee”
in favor of CPOWs because the Japanese referred to them as
POWs and “the Japanese had the guns”. In fact, generally the
civilian prisoners of the Japanese were treated better than the
the military prisoners but both categories were treated
poorly to the extreme. This is especially true when compared to
Japanese-Americans who were wrongly interned in the US
during the War and were referred to as internees. There can
no comparison to the poor treatment endured by the
civilian enemy prisoners under Japanese captivity in WWII.
One Comment
Craig Davis
I think it is commendable that the name of the organization includes
Civilian Prisoners Of Wars (CPOW) as opposed to “internees”.
My dad was a member of the 511th PIR / 11th Airborne Div but
was not part of the rescue. He and my mom were good friends
with Jerry and Margaret Sams who were Los Banos prisoners.
The Sams resided about 4 miles from my parents near Grass
Valley, CA.
I interviewed the Sams for a college research paper in 2001.
Jerry Sams explained to me that he resisted the term “internee”
in favor of CPOWs because the Japanese referred to them as
POWs and “the Japanese had the guns”. In fact, generally the
civilian prisoners of the Japanese were treated better than the
the military prisoners but both categories were treated
poorly to the extreme. This is especially true when compared to
Japanese-Americans who were wrongly interned in the US
during the War and were referred to as internees. There can
no comparison to the poor treatment endured by the
civilian enemy prisoners under Japanese captivity in WWII.