Explaining the Interbellum Rupture in Japanese Treatment of Prisoners of War

Authors

  • John Hickman Berry College

Abstract

A puzzle is presented by the interbellum difference in the Japanese treatment of prisoners of war from faithful adherence to flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. This article first analyzes versions of the indoctrination in brutality thesis appearing in works of popular and scholarly history before articulating two constructivist accounts that explain the interbellum rupture. Where one constructivist account focusing on national political elites explains non-adherence yet fails to assign policy making responsibility to agents with power over prisoners of war, a second constructivist account focusing on theatre military elites both explains non-adherence and assigns the policy change responsibility to agents with power over prisoners of war.

Author Biography

John Hickman, Berry College

John Hickman is Associate Professor of Government at Berry College, where he teaches courses on comparative politics and a seminar on international humanitarian law. Before earning his PH.D. from the University of Iowa, he taught at Reitaku University in Tokyo. Dr. Hickman also holds a J.D. from Washington University, St. Louis. Before attending graduate school at the University of Iowa, where he earned a Ph.D. in Political Science and an M.A. from the University of Missouri, and served as a Woodrow Wilson Administrative Fellow at Florida A & M University in Tallahassee. He has done field research on electoral politics in Japan, Sri Lanka, and Romania. His published research has appeared in African Development Review, American Asian Review, American Politics Research, Asian Perspective, Astropolitics, Comparative State Politics, Comparative Strategy, Contemporary South Asia, Current Politics and Economics of Asia, East European Quarterly, Extrapolation, Journal of Central Asian Studies (forthcoming) Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Science, Review of Religious Research, Scientia Militaria, Studies in History (forthcoming), West Africa, Women & Politics, and the Yamanashigakuin Law Review.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2009): Fall 2009

Section

Articles