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One would think that the Japanese guard Towers, on the outskirts of the Empire, at least, would be built of field-expedient materials, such as tree trunks, and thatching, as opposed to factory-made lumber. Perhaps in Metropolitan Japan they might be of proper lumber.

Now, I don't know how the various nations used to secure the perimeter of their compounds, and that is also something to consider, if one is intending a "correct" depiction of such.  We have all seen depictions of German POW Camps and Concentration Camps.  That much is known.   I reckon the Allies might have constructed their POW Camps differently, at least the ones far in the rear.  Camps in the immediate "rear" of the front could be quite crude, indeed, and the crudeness factor could be expected to be accentuated, for the Germans and Japanese, in the latter part of the War.

Another thing to consider is the nationality of the POWs.  The Germans, and presumably the Italians, for instance, at least gave lip service to the Geneva Convention when handling Western Allied POWs.  Not so the Soviet POWs, since the Soviet Union had never signed the Geneva Conventions concerning POWs.  Not to excuse the blatant inhumanity of the Nazis toward Soviet POWS (and vice versa!),  but simply a remark on the types of POW camps one might expect to see from the air. 

There is some evidence that the Soviets overran some German POW camps which held Allied POWs, and that the Soviets used such POWS as bargaining chips, or better said, hostages, in negotiations concerning the return of Soviet POWS held by the Nazis, who fell into Allied hands.  There is also some evidence that not all the Allied POWs held by the Soviets were repatriated.  The evidence that Allied leaders were aware of this non-repatriation is very sketchy.

As an aside, little Rhode Island was home to a special POW camp, where some selected German POWs were "Re-Educated" for the purpose of being potentially re-introduced behind German lines as sabotage agents.   These camps, were, naturally, lightly-guarded, since the German POWs had nowhere to go unless they chose to swim the Atlantic Ocean.

http://smallstatebighistory.com/the-top-secret-world-war-ii-prisoner-of-war-camp-at-fort-kearney-in-narragansett/

Edited by RIBob
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