THE JAP CIVILIAN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 308, 29 December 1944, Page 3

THE JAP CIVILIAN

HE WANTS TO LIVE

EXPLODING THE SUICIDE MYTH

For the first time in the Pacific war, American fighting men encountered large numbers of civilians when we invaded the Marianas. On Saipan, marines and Army troops ran into somewhat more than 15,000 non-uni-formed Japanese clerks, labourers, Government officials, farmers. On Guam they liberated at least 20,000 American nationals whose 31 months under Japanese administration had been a period of brutality and oppression. What was the reaction of the Japanese civilians to our troops on Saipan and Tinian? How did their propaganda-ridden mentalities respond to our offers of fair treatment in return for surrender? To what extent did they join their brothers under arms in dying for the Emperor? The fact that the great majority of Saipan civilians are still alive and healthy answers some of these questions revealingly, if not conclusively. What we learned about the Japanese in these islands may have a strong bearing on future events in the Pacific war. This was the first time in the nearly three-year-old Pacific conflict that Americans had been forced to contend with Japanese civilians while smashing an enemy stronghold. The attitude of our men to the enemy civilians was one of compassion— and sometimes they paid a high price for having been compassionate. They won the battle of Saipan but they did not rape, as had the Japanese in China and other places on the Jap circuit of conquest. American fighting men did not destroy for the sadistic pleasure of destruction.

Guerilla Role the Exception Many times our fighting men were fired on by Japanese civilians as they attempted either to treat wounded men, wpmen and children or to evacuate them from combat areas. In one instance, an American civilian war correspondent left his jeep, made his way down a rocky slope to where he had spotted an infant lying among the limestone pinnacles along the shore. He was fired on as he made his way up the slope with the infant in his arms. But the significant thing is that the thousands of Japanese civilians who either made their way to our lines or surrendered when we approached the caves in which they were hiding, proved that this guerilla light warfare was truly the exception rather than the rule. Our military and civil affairs authorities were faced with the unknown when we-went into Saipan— it marked the first time that consideration would have to be given to enemy civilians. We knew that on this island we would encounter Koreans, Chamorros and Japanese by the thousands. We did not know how they would react to our coming. Thousands upon thousands of leaflets were dropped on Saipan before D-day, pointing out that the civilians would receive fair treatment by making their way into our li nes —that they would be fed, given water and, if necessary, medical care. A few hours after our Marines went ashore, the civilians of the sugar mill town of Charan-Kanoa did surrender. A few days ' after D-day civilians in internment camps numbered in the thousands.

Fear of Own Soldiers Scores of Japanese civilians, when they were safe in our collection camps, admitted that they would have surrendered earlier except for fear of their own soldiers. There were countless incidents in which three or four Jap soldiers, holed up in caves with fifty or a hundred civilians, threatened to shoot any who attempted to escape or to give themselves up. On one occasion we were able, quite inadvertently, to prove to the civilians that we meant them no harm. It was whea our fighting men were pushing their way toward Marpi Point, at thei extreme north of Saipan Island. The men came upon a tremendous cave high in a hill which sheltered nearly 200 Japanese civilians. By means of loud-speakers mounted on jeeps, the civilians were urged to come out. For more than an hour, there was no sign of understanding from them. Finally, a few children from four to eight years old appeared in the entrance. They started to make their way down the side of the hill. It took them nearly half an hour; while many watched the children, others noticed that the entrance to the cave was filled with adults. The Marines gave the children pieces of hard candy as soon as they reached our outer patrols. The unconcerned youngsters took the candy and allowed themselves to be led to a truck. The Marines hoisted them up, and then the children began to laugh and jump about. As if the laughter were a cue, the . adults began to stream out of the shelter and actually raced down the hill. So eager were some that thenspeed plus the incline served to bowl them over like roly-poly dolls. "When we saw that you did not kill our children, we knew we would be safe," an elderly Japanese woman told one of our interpreters. Propaganda-bred Fear The speed with which the civilians on Tinian lost their fear was illustrated by one case: On Tinian, commanded by an exceedingly crafty Jap. colonel, the civilians had taken their food with them when they were evacuated to caves on the southern end of the island. They hid the food in the caves in hastily dug holes. When they surrendered, thev had no food with them. After a couple of days in camp, a youthful Japanese approached a guard and asked, through an interpreter, to return to his cave. There was food there, he said, and he thought his friends would rather have their own than eat the American field rations. With a companion, he was taken in a truck to a heavily wooded area. Although he pointed to the cave, the guards could not make it out, it was so well hidden. They allowed him to go into the hide-out with his companion. Within ten minutes, the two returned heavily laden with food. Following them were five more Japanese, all carrying food, who had been hiding in the cave. The youthful Japanese had simply told them that they could stay there if they wanted to, but he thought they were fools if they did. That, by and large, was the story of our relationship with Japanese civilians on Saipan. It is doubtful whether our deeds on Saipan and '".Tinian will be known for a long time oritO'other millions of Japanese, whose . ..ears Tokyo keeps so effectively shut. But the experience with these enemy proved, if nothing else, V. that deeds and acts of kindness can very quickly dispel the effects of -/even the most' persistently repeated ~ "propaganda.—Special to Colliers.