221 Japanese Prisoners of War Approach USS Admiral C. F. Hughes

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Date: Tuesday, 1 May 1945
Place: Apra Harbor, Guam, Marianas
Photographer: Unknown

LCT approaches Coast Guard-manned USS Admiral C. F. Hughes (AP-124). She put in at Guam on April 30, 1945, and all her passengers disembarked. After taking another group on board, including 221 Japanese prisoners of war from a Tank Landing Craft (LCT), she stood out of Apra Harbor on May 3. The transport made a two-day stop at Pearl Harbor from May 10-12 to disembark the prisoners and then continued her voyage back to the west coast. While over 420,000 German and Italian POWs were held in American camps, only 5,000 Japanese were detained by the war's end. This was partly because of explicit and implicit orders to fight to the death, a reluctance by Americans to take prisoners, and an increasingly obvious threat to the Japanese Home Islands. Many Japanese fighting men preferred to die in combat rather than be taken prisoner. At the end of the war, when it was realized that Japan was going to lose, About 2,500 were held at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin. The rest were dispersed to Camp Huntsville, Camp Hearn and Camp Kenedy in Texas, Camp Clarinda in Iowa, and Camp Livingston in Louisiana. Camp Kenedy housed most of the Japanese POW officers. 

Source:

NARA (National Archives) Record Group 26: Records of the U.S. Coast Guard, 1785 - 2005 (ARC identifier: 355). Series: Activities, Facilities, and Personalities, compiled 1886 - 1967 (ARC identifier: 513164). NAIL Control Number: NWDNS-26-G-4669

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_further_indication_that_not_all_Japanese_fight_to_the_death_is_this_bag_of_221_Nip_prisoners_of_war._Sprawled_on..._-_NARA_-_513225.tif

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