The prison guards worked eight hour shifts, while the prisoners never had the chance to leave the solitary confinement, until officials were forced to shut this experiment down due to signs of depression and extreme stress after only six days of being in the "prison." The Stanford Experiment was supposed to last a total of two weeks, but he head authority figures got hooked into the experiment. If it was not for the supervisors stopping it early, it would have possibly went on for longer than two weeks. The prison guards took over the power given to them and used it for the worse. Similar to the novel Unbroken, a prison guard named Watanabe, took over and treated the prisoners unfairly. With great power, comes great responsibility; many of the guards had not been responsible with the prisoners lives. Watanabe had been so irresponsible with the prisoners' lives, resulting in him breaking many prisoners' bones. When asked about his actions in World War II, he said that he was acting under orders, when his actions were completely against the law. .
He said he had been trying to teach the POWs military discipline, and asserted that he had been acting under orders (Hillenbrand 393).
The soldiers were given the power to take care of the POWs. Having the responsibility of another person's life is considered a great power to the POWs, due to the fact that if the guards would have treated them differently, their lives during war would have been altered for the best. Many men suffered from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder because the guards also did not know when to stop, they got wrapped into an altercation and would not realize what they were doing. The Stanford Experiment had been a good experiment gone bad, and to make it worse, it was relatable to World War II veterans. The Japanese soldiers in Unbroken, and the prisoners from The Milgram Experiment, have learned how evil people can be.
