Fires: The Chinese treated all POWs the same regardless of rank. This resulted in the degradation of discipline among POWs. Do you think this was the intended outcome or just 2nd and 3rd order effects? In addition what would you do to combat the loss of morale among POWs?

Though the Chinese treatment of all POWs the same regardless of rank might have had some effect in the degradation of discipline among POWs, the much more likely culprit would have to be the pervasive culture throughout the military of the time that soldiers saw themselves more as civilians than as professional soldiers.  This is the likely case because virtually all POWs of the Japanese during World War Two were treated the same regardless of rank and their rank structure didn’t disintegrate under the pressure.  Thus, I believe that the degradation in discipline occurred more from the culture that permeated the country as soldiers were drafted into the war not truly believing they were soldiers before civilians.

While it is nice to speculate what one would or wouldn’t do when faced with a similar POW situation, there is no definitive way to say you would react a certain way.  The best thing that can be done to learn how to combat the loss of morale in this situation is to read the memoirs of those in similar conditions from WW2, Korea, and Vietnam with the hope that the lessons gained from reading and academic study never have to be applied in reality.