The Bando POW Camp Ruins isn't so far from my hometown, but I've never been there. I dropped in at the ruins on the way home from my business trip. The about 1000 of POWs who were accommodated in this camp were German who had been captured in the battle in Qing dynasty in China during World War I. The camp was run from April in 1917 to March in 1920.
What images do you have for the PWO camp? I read several experience documents written by Japanese people who had been confined into POW camps after the Great Eastern Asian War. I often wanted to avert my eyes from their description, but the Bando POW Camp was utterly different.
The POWs fought Japan on the behalf of Germany, not from their personal hostility against Japan. The authorities felt sorry for the POWs and allowed them to spend leisurely and free hours without any labor. Some of the POWs started to bake bread for their fellow POWs who wanted to eat German fresh bread. Some played Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for fellow POWs and Japanese camp officers. This fact made the site the birthplace of the Ninth Symphony in Japan. They were allowed to go in for sporting and artistic activities. At present, a nearby museum with regard to the camp collects a steady stream of visitors. I've visited the museum before, but dropped in at the real ruin for the first time. Climbing up the backside hill, I found two monuments along the path, honoring German who passed away during detention. I felt sorry and paid a short silence. One of the monuments was built by the German Government.
I had been reading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Emil Frankl (Holocaust survivor, Austrian psychiatrist) by chance. According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected his longevity. The book intends to answer the question "How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?" It's not easy to express my opinion precisely in English, but anyway, we've had enough of war.
(Vocabulary)
Bando POW Camp 坂東俘虜収容所
Man's Search for Meaning（邦訳：夜と霧）
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