Hello

I recently got Ian Toll's trilogy about the Pacific Theater of World War II, and saw that during Japan's War with Russia, the Japanese military was praised for its treatment of prisoners of war. Prisoners were properly fed and given reading material, very few died, and those that did were buried with military honors.

This was striking to me because it is in stark contrast to how Japan treated prisoners of war in the Second World War. Beatings, slave labor, starvation, murder, etc are all details I've heard about those who surrendered to the IJA or IJN.

What prompted this drastic change in the treatment of PoWs?