CAPTIVES OF JAPAN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 205, 12 June 1945, Page 3

CAPTIVES OF JAPAN.

REPORTS ON CAMPS AND HOSPITALS. LONDON, June 11. The British War Office has received reports on Japanese prisoner of war camps and the Tokio group hospital. The Hoten camp in Manchuria, on the outskirts of Mukden, was visited last December. There were then 1100 prisoners, mostly Americans, in the camp. The camp is a Japanese army barrack-type of building, having double windows for insulation against cold, electric lights in all rooms, and an ample provision of baths, showers, and wash basins. The quantity of food was said to be the same as for the guards and rice did not form the main food. There have been no deaths among British prisoners and none was permanently in hospital. The majority of prisoners were assigned factory work for eight hours a day six days a week. The Chosen (Korea) detached camp No. 1 was not visited, but information was obtained from the Japanese commandant. In November he said there were 347 prisoners, mostly British. The food rations appeared to be equal to those supplied to the main camp. The prisoner-or-war hospital for the Tokio group of camps is situated in a former Tokio main camp at Shinagawa. It is It) minutes by car from Tokio, near a port among warehouses. When visited last February there were 259 patients. The chief causes ot the ,53 deaths which have occurred since the hospital was opened in 1943 were tuberculosis, anaemia, dysentery, pneumonia and beri-beri. The heating was stated to be inadequate, but there were no other complaints. British and American medical officers considered the treatment to be satisfactory.