The Punishment Hut
I took these pictures on Friday, June 5, 2020. This is the Punishment Hut. Many people don't know it, but during WWII a couple thousand American Army Air Force prisoners of war were kept in the space that today is known as the Shinjuku National Garden on the east side of JR Shinjuku Station in central Tokyo, as a kind of deterrent to American bombing. This building was the Punishment Hut - the sort of thing you see in WWII movies - where uncooperative prisoners were sequestered for a week or so to bake in the fierce Japanese heat. In war movies about Allied POWs in German custody it’s commonly called “the Cooler,” like in the famous Steve McQueen movie The Great Escape (1963), or the 1960s situation comedy Hogan's Heroes. But in movies about Allied POWs in Japanese custody it’s commonly called a “sweat box,” like in the Alec Guinness movie The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Surprisingly, it's still standing today, fenced-off and hidden away in the forest with nothing to distinguish it, and easy to miss. Who knows what it's used for now? Tool shed, equipment shed, or maybe just empty. You can see that it has a modern door on it, which means that the structure has been maintained over the years and not abandoned or demolished - and, someone (a groundskeeper or gardener, I guess) must have a key to the door.