Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jd Smith1" data-source="post: 8065667" data-attributes="member: 6998052">Well, fictional stories generally ignore the fact that being taken prisoner means incredible hardships, torture, and frequently, death; they generally ignore reality in every particular. In  the history of the USA, for example, the only time being taken prisoner meant even reasonable treatment was in WW1, and in WW2 by the Germans (and even then, hardships abounded and the shooting of POWs did occur). Few nations had anything resembling humane treatment of prisoners before WW1, and when facing more primitive cultures, being captured simply meant a slow death. In the US military, being a POW is not highly regarded; the Soviets imprisoned those Red Army troops who were captured by the Germans in WW2 (and who had survived the terrible conditions). The Imperial Japanese heaped great dishonor upon those who surrendered. Chinese and Vietnamese Communist governments imprisoned those of their  troops who had been taken as prisoners. And so forth.Historically, if you're not killed outright, being a prisoner means facing disease, starvation, and maltreatment at best, active torture at worst. In more primitive times, those of noble birth might see ransoms paid, but otherwise, why feed useless mouths?</blockquote>