The Complete Book of World War II USA POW & Internment Camp Chits Seelye Book

It is an often forgotten piece of World War II history that between 1942 and 1946, 425,000 German, Italian, and even some Japanese prisoners of war were held at 700 POW camps in 46 U.S. states. All except the Japanese got here on troop transport ships that would have otherwise returned from Europe empty. The Complete Book of World War II USA POW & Internment Camp Chits. Prisoner of War Money in the United States is a comprehensive look at one of the overlooked, yet more intriguing aspects of the camps' operations – the money, or “chits” that the POWs used for discretionary expenses in their camps, such as for cigarettes, candy, paper and postage, 3.2% beer, or other items. Why did prisoners of war have or even need money? Enlisted POWs, the book explains, were allowed to work on non-military tasks such as farming, construction, and manufacturing. For this, they were paid on a scale based on the U.S. equivalent of their military rank. A private in 1941, as an example, got 80 cents a