New Books in East Asian Studies Robert Cribb et al., "Detention Camps in Asia: The Conditions of Confinement in Modern Asian History" (Brill, 2022)
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Aug 22, 2025 In this engaging discussion, Robert Cribb, an Emeritus Professor of Asian History, dives into the harrowing history of detention camps in Asia. He examines the massive scale of imprisonment, the psychological impact on detainees, and the societal implications of these camps. The podcast offers a comparative analysis with Nazi extermination camps and sheds light on Indonesia's dark political genocide. Cribb also reflects on the challenges of academic editing while delving into the complexities of historical narratives involving war crimes. It's a thought-provoking journey into a painful yet crucial aspect of modern Asian history.
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Varied Purposes Of Asian Detention Camps
- Detention camps in 20th-century Asia served diverse strategic purposes across many countries and conflicts.
- They targeted ethnic, political, and POW categories and varied widely in design and intent.
Administrative Detention Versus Judicial Prison
- Prisons arise from judicial sentences while detention camps rely on administrative decisions without judicial guilt.
- Camp detainees face indefinite confinement and greater psychological uncertainty than sentenced prisoners.
Why Camps Exploded In The 20th Century
- Camps proliferated in the 20th century due to human-rights norms, technology, and strategic logic of mass detention.
- Barbed wire, canned food, and the desire to avoid massacres made large-scale confinement feasible and deceptively 'humane'.
