U.S. Prisons Vs. POW Prisons!
GunnyG
War,History,Social Issues,
The Richard Keech Newsletter, December 1999
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Subject: Richard Keech...Newsletter #13 12-5-99
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 00:56:01 EST
NEWSLETTER #13 12-5-99
CALIFORNIA VS JAPANESE PRISONS (World War II)
A lot of you, who know of my past history as a Japanese POW
during World War
II, have asked for some comments on the difference between the
California
Prison World and that of the Japanese during that long ago war.
It’s a good question. The interesting thing is that the answer
isn’t as
simple as it might seem.
The Japanese were mean, sadistic and brutal, right? California
guards are
Americans, “Enough said”, right? No, not necessarily so.
The Japanese guards were soldiers. It wasn’t their choice to
be guarding
prisoners as a vocation. One and all they really wanted to be
warriors, to
die for the Emperor. They were guarding prisoners because they
had medical
problems that kept them out of the regular armed forces. Their
service to
the country had to be to replace able bodied men in necessary
home front jobs
so the healthy guys could go off to fight.
They weren’t too happy about this, but they did their best. It
was a job. It
was work. In Japan, work is a part of their religion. Every
man has a
sacred duty to work.
So they did their job. In doing this they treated us, as all
conquering
armies do their prisoners, just a little worse than their own
men. Therein
lay the rub!
This was an oriental army that was just two generations removed
from feudal
serfdom under the Shoguns. Sacrifice, privation and suffering
were believed
to be the normal way of life by them. When they treated us
“just a little
worse than their own men”, they, without really intending to,
killed off one
out of every four American prisoners.
It wasn’t completely one sided though! We had our days! We
were, for
instance, almost a foot taller than the average Japanese
soldier. This
difference in height never ceased to annoy them.
You’re a Jap, your country has won the war. Those guys you’re
guarding come
from an inferior race, do they not? They’re your prisoners,
aren’t they? So
how come they all tower over you and act like they own the
world?
Here in California we have a similar problem. Our guards, too,
are annoyed
by the seeming paradox that their “inferiors” act “superior.”
It was height and seeming good spirits that bugged the Japs.
What bugs the
California Guards? Believe it or not it’s brains and education.
“Hey, just
because you guys have an education don’t get the idea you’re
better than us.
We’re guards! We’re the masters here. Say something smart and
we’ll “kick
butt.” Apparently guards the world over have trouble dealing
with “superior
inferiors.”
In all fairness there is some validity to their concern.
California prison
guards are not selected for their ‘towering’ mentalities. A
good guard is a
man who can stand and watch a door for eight hours and never let
an idle
thought cross his mind. Thinking diverts a guard from his duty.
Thinking is
to be discouraged. Prison personnel officers look for happy
non-thinkers in
their search for the staff. You had some trouble in high
school, but you
loved the athletics? We have just the job for you. Sign here,
pass this
easy GED test, and you’re one of us, a highly paid California
Prison Guard.
There’s a curious difference in the ratio of guards to prisoners
between the
Japanese and the Californians. In Japan, the ratio was
something like one to
twenty. Here in California they tell me it is on to something
less than
four. That’s quite a difference. Why so much, you ask?
Well, let me guess, perhaps we California prisoners are five
times more
deadly than the men your country sent off to war to fight for
you. But I
don’t think this theory holds water. We could say the Japanese
were five
times braver than our California guards. (Braver, I might buy,
but not that
much, I don’t think.) I’m not quite sure why such a big
difference, but I
believe it has something to do with the fact that California
guards are very
well paid and have on of the country’s most powerful labor
unions. More jobs
for more guards is its motto. It’s done rather well, I think.
Stop, I hear many of you saying! Your memory is failing you.
Those Jap
guards slapped and beat you almost daily from what we heard you
tell. How
can you compare that sort of thing with the humane treatment you
get in a
California prison. Have you ever been beaten here?
You’re right, and you’re wrong! Let me drop a bomb here. In
many ways the
Japanese system was far more humane. Let me explain.
In the Japanese army all punishment and all discipline was
“instantaneous.”
You broke a rule. You will be punished on the spot,
commensurate with the
crime, and here’s the difference. Once the punishment is over
you go back to
work as a free man. You’ve paid for your crime. That’s all.
It’s over and
done. In the Japanese army there are no punishments that send
you off to a
“brig” or to a “hole”.
This is a country that sees work as a religion in itself. Any
punishment
that stops a man from working is “sinful.” Now you may be so
badly beaten
that you can’t work for two days. That’s OK. The minute you
can stand up
and move, back to work you go. Once you are back on the job,
the punishment
is over.
In our “humane” California system all infractions of the rules
result in the
prisoner being further isolated from his family and friends.
You did that?
It’s off to the “Hole” for you for a year. Keep it up and it
will be five
years. Say something smart and you will be in solitary with no
contact with
the world at all.
Now in all fairness, this is not a criticism of our prison
guards. They
didn’t make up all of these laws. But you asked which was
better. I’ll take
the instant punishment.
Richard Keech
Semper fi
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