Reviewed by: Prisoners of the Empire: Inside Japanese POW Camps by Sarah Kovner Mahon Murphy Prisoners of the Empire: Inside Japanese POW Camps. By Sarah Kovner. Harvard University Press, 2020. 336 pages. ISBN: 9780674737617 (hardcover, also available as e-book). Japan's treatment of prisoners of war is possibly one of the most often-discussed aspects of the Pacific War in popular historical accounts that tend to emphasize the exceptional character of the Japanese soldier—which was shaped in part by brutality among military peers. In Prisoners of the Empire: Inside Japanese POW Camps, Sarah Kovner argues that there was nothing inherent in the Japanese character or culture that led to the inhumane treatment of POWs by Japan during the Pacific War. While taking great pains not to deny the suffering of those held captive, Kovner explains that it was inattention to the challenges of managing POWs and a general lack of interest in their care that led to many of these cruel and inhuman conditions. She describes the Japanese military's failures in the management of POWs as "unwitting cruelty" (p. 3). Official Japanese policy throughout the war was to adhere to the Geneva Convention of 1929, but this was never backed up with any real logistical support, imperial planners were too preoccupied with the expansion of territory, and the government never created a coherent internment system with a clear chain of command. This is a thoroughly researched book. The author makes fine use of international archives spanning nine different countries, as well as interviews with various witnesses. This multiarchival approach effectively serves to include a variety of voices and to give us an understanding of the administration of the POW camps and the management of prisoners. The book also provides enough background about Japan's [End Page 411] treatment of POWs captured in conflicts prior to the Pacific War and its engagement with internationalism to orient a nonexpert reader. Indeed, one of the book's main strengths is its analysis of the role of Swiss diplomats and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Japan during the war. The use of Swiss archives helps to paint a complex picture of the ICRC and Swiss diplomats and their role in POW management. During the war, the Swiss government acted as the protecting power, and the (Swiss-led) ICRC provided relief to POWs. While these were distinct organizations, there were overlaps in personnel. The Swiss were in a difficult position, as their reports on conditions for captives in Japan were responsible for determining whether the US would retaliate against Japanese and Japanese American civilians. The Swiss legation also had to think about the welfare of its own citizens in the expanding Japanese empire, with reports that eighteen Swiss men and women had been murdered by Japanese troops in Manila (p. 117). As Kovner notes, the Swiss diplomats were "less-than-innocent bystanders" (p. 118). The United States used Swiss reports to threaten reprisals against Japanese POWs and civilian internees, and the Swiss were caught between the Americans and the Japanese constantly accusing each other of war crimes—Japan's treatment of POWs and US treatment of Japanese civilians on the US West Coast, respectively. The Swiss government and the ICRC overestimated their capacity to carry out the roles assigned to them. It was only in July 1945 that the Swiss obtained permission to visit camps in occupied territories, although just how Swiss and ICRC officials were to access these isolated facilities as the Japanese empire collapsed was another question. The book highlights the problems facing neutral countries in acting as protecting powers during wartime. In addition, Kovner gives us clear insight into how the Japanese government attempted to administer its POW camps. Here we see the War Ministry issuing constant rebuffs to the Japanese Prisoner of War Information Bureau (POWIB), even preventing it in certain cases from giving information to the Allies. Kovner takes pains to acknowledge that much of the information on the POWIB came from postwar testimony by those with an interest in absolving themselves from any wrongdoing. However, as much of the POWIB archive survived the war, Kovner is able to prove that...