 It unquestionably contributed to the maltreatment of prisoners of war, who had performed the disgraceful act of surrender.Another consequence was that nothing was done to train soldiers for captivity, with the result that Americans found Japanese prisoners much easier to get information from than the Japanese found American prisoners.In 1932, Akiko Yosano's poetry urged Japanese soldiers to endure sufferings in China and compared the dead soldiers to cherry blossoms, a traditional image that would be put to great use throughout the war.