1. These United States military and civilian prisoners were confined in brutal prison camps by the Japanese military and subjected to severe shortages of food, medicine, and basic necessities.
2. A large number of United States military and civilian prisoners were subjected to forced labor by the Japanese military.
3. United States military and civilian prisoners were starved to death, beaten to death, and summarily executed by beheading, firing squads, or immolation (being set on fire while still very much alive).

As a result of this gross maltreatment, many of the United States military and civilian prisoners who survived have suffered from lifelong illnesses, as well as psychological and emotional trauma and financial hardships.

Of all the United States military and civilian prisoners held by the Germans in Europe during World War II, 1.1 percent of military prisoners and 3.5 percent of civilian prisoners died.

Comparatively, of all the United States military and civilian prisoners held by the Japanese during World War II, 37.3 percent of military prisoners and 11 percent of civilian prisoners died.

1. Almost all United States military and civilian prisoners rescued from the Japanese at the end of World War II were afflicted with diseases caused by malnutrition and deprivation.
2. During the "death march" following the surrender of Bataan in the Philippines in April 1942, between 550 and 1,000 United States soldiers perished, including many who were shot, stabbed, or beheaded by their Japanese captors.
3. In Mukden, Manchuria, the Japanese biochemical warfare detachment, Unit 731, commanded by Dr. Shiro Ishii, conducted experiments on living prisoners of war which included infecting prisoners - called "logs of wood" - with deadly toxins including plague, anthrax, typhoid, and a dozen other pathogens.
   • Of the 1,500 United States prisoners believed to have been held at Mukden, at least 260 died during the first winter of imprisonment and of the 300 living survivors of Mukden, many claim physical ailments related to being subjected to chemical-biological experiments.
   • After World War II, Dr. Ishii and other prominent scientists and physicians of Unit 731 who conducted human biological warfare experiments, dissected living prisoners and froze prisoners to death for purposes of scientific experimentation, were given pardons by United States military tribunals in exchange for use of their experiment records.
   • These experiment records remain classified by certain Federal departments and agencies of the United States and access to such records has been denied to the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as to the doctors of individuals who were subjected to the experimentation.