Video Documentary
Prisoners of the Emperor
"The Barbed Wire Club"

©2000, Daniel Polsfuss & John Makepeace


    Introduction:
    In 2000, Daniel Polsfuss and John Makepeace began interviewing American survivors of Japanese prison camps in World War II.   What they found were compelling stories of camaraderie, sometimes gruesome imagery and examples of sheer will to survive.   After the soldierís release they formed a club to celebrate their freedom, to share stories and to relate to those few others who might understand this experience.  This club, based on these shared experiences, has formed a bond that has continued to today.   They call themselves "The Barbed Wire Club."

    Synopsis:
    Eight WWII veterans tell of their experiences as prisoners of war (POWs).   Eleven hours of interviews, edited down to 46 minutes, detail their war experiences spanning the months and years of WWII.   These men were captured by Japanese military forces in the early days and months of WWII.   In the beginning of the war these men were stationed at various places in and around the Pacific: some with the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps in the Philippines as well as on Corregidor Island in Manila Bay; another serving with the Navy on the heavy cruiser the USS Houston, another with the Marines on Wake Island (captured 16 days after the war began), and another with the British Army in Singapore.

    The end of the war found these men in places even more remote and unknown: coal, lead and copper mines in Japan; the Burma- Siam Railroad; an airstrip that would go uncompleted near Saigon.   The various routes to these final destinations as told by these heroic men are filled with the details of daily life.

    Soon their experiences would merge as they became prisoners of the Japanese Empire.   The Japanese actually considered them "captives" and not prisoners of war.   There is a profound difference, as would soon be evidenced by the treatment that awaited them!

    These men will detail in these interviews what it was like to be a POW with a very limited hope of survival.   They were fairly certain they would never be liberated.   They believed, and postwar evidence supports this, that if they survived the war, their prison guards had orders to kill them rather than free them, for fear of the stories they might tell.

    None of them could ever have predicted they would survive the war itself much less be here 6 decades later to witness the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

    For some, chance and circumstance may account for their survival; others report it was the yearning and will to get back home and live to see the Japanese held accountable for their treatment that kept them going.   This is their story, compelling and sometimes horrifying: "The Barbed Wire Club, Prisoners of the Emperor."

    All footage, photos and interviews are rights released to Polsfusian Pictures, Minneapolis.

    Time: 46 minutes
    Format: DVC Pro, released on D1, Digital Beta and Beta SP

    Contact:

      Producers
      John K. Makepeace
      Daniel Polsfuss
      612-332-6518
      danpo@minn.net

      310 North Second Street
      Minneapolis, MN 55401