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Hell Ship
A hell ship is a ship with extremely inhumane living conditions or with a reputation for cruelty among the crew. It now generally refers to the ships used by the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army to transport Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and '' romushas'' (Asian forced slave laborers) out of the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong and Singapore in World War II. These POWs were taken to the Japanese Islands, Formosa, Manchukuo, Korea, the Moluccas, Sumatra, Burma, or Siam to be used as forced labor. Early use of the term The term was coined much earlier than its use in the Second World War. During the American Revolution, HMS ''Jersey'' and other prison hulks in New York Harbor were used by the British to house American prisoners of war in terrible conditions. More than 11,000 prisoners died on these ships. HMS ''Jersey'' in particular was referred to as "Hell." In the context of World War II, whilst the term was more commonly used to describe Ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explains, the English spellings of both Myanmar and Burma assume a non-rhotic variety of English, in which the letter r before a consonant or finally serves merely to indicate a long vowel: mjænmɑː, ˈbɜːmə So the pronunciation of the last syllable of Myanmar as ɑːror of Burma as ɜːrməby some speakers in the UK and most speakers in North America is in fact a spelling pronunciation based on a misunderstanding of non-rhotic spelling conventions. The final ''r'' in ''Myanmar'' was not intended for pronunciation and is there to ensure that the final a is pronounced with the broad ''ah'' () in "father". If the Burmese name my, မြန်မာ, label=none were spelled "Myanma" in English, this would be pronounced at the end by all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death. The term ''inanition'' refers to the symptoms and effects of starvation. Starvation may also be used as a means of torture or execution. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hunger is the single gravest threat to the world's public health.Malnutrition The Starvelings The WHO also states that is by far the biggest contributor to [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asphyxia
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can induce asphyxia, all of which are characterized by the inability of a person to acquire sufficient oxygen through breathing for an extended period of time. Asphyxia can cause coma or death. In 2015, about 9.8 million cases of unintentional suffocation occurred which resulted in 35,600 deaths. The word asphyxia is from Ancient Greek "without" and , "squeeze" (throb of heart). Causes Situations that can cause asphyxia include but are not limited to: airway obstruction, the constriction or obstruction of airways, such as from asthma, laryngospasm, or simple blockage from the presence of foreign materials; from being in environments where oxygen is not readily accessible: such as underwater, in a low oxygen atmosphere, or in a vacuum; envir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Altmark Incident
The ''Altmark'' incident (Norwegian: ''Altmark''-affæren; German: ''Altmark-Zwischenfall'') was a naval incident of World War II between British destroyers and the German tanker ''Altmark'', which happened on 16–17 February 1940. It took place in what were, at that time, neutral Norwegian waters. On board the ''Altmark'' were roughly 300 Allied prisoners (officially internees), whose ships had been sunk by the pocket battleship ''Graf Spee'' in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. British naval forces cornered the tanker and later the destroyer HMS ''Cossack'' boarded the ''Altmark'' near the Jøssingfjord and liberated all the prisoners; eight German sailors were killed and ten wounded during the hand-to-hand fighting which took place during the boarding. A British sailor was also wounded during the fighting. The German government claimed that the boarding was a violation of international law and Norwegian neutrality, and later used the incident in the propaganda broa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
