“The guard sought to deprive them of something that had sustained them, even as all else had been lost, dignity. This self-respect and sense of self-worth, the innermost armament of the soul, lies at the heart of humanness. To be deprived of it is to be dehumanized. To be cleaved from and cast below mankind. Men subjected to dehumanizing treatment experience profound wretchedness and loneliness and find that hope is almost impossible to retain. Without dignity, identity is erased. In its absence, men are defined not by themselves but by their captures and the circumstances in which they are forced to live. One American airman, shot down and relentlessly debased by his Japanese captures described the state of mind that his captivity created. "I was literally becoming a lesser human being." Few societies treasured dignity and feared humiliation as did the Japanese for whom a loss of honor could merit suicide.”