ABSTRACT
Second World War was the most violent conflict in modern times. Yet Japanese and American soldiers fought the land war in the Pacific with a savage and relentless intensity that was rarely equaled and never surpassed in Second World War. The grim nature of the Pacific War is best illustrated by the extremely low number of prisoners taken. Approximately 37,000 Japanese servicemen surrendered during land operations in the Pacific War. A very high percentage of Japanese Prisoners-of-War surrendered in the waning months of the Pacific War in areas such as the South Pacific or the Philippines where imperial garrisons had long been isolated. The war of annihilation that marked the Pacific War resulted from unique battlefield dynamics. As the first American expeditionary force of the Pacific War headed to Guadalcanal, rumors were already circulating of Japanese cruelty in the Philippines and on Wake Island.
