PRISONERS OF JAPANESE

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24677, 21 September 1945, Page 6

PRISONERS OF JAPANESE

O NAVAL OFFICERS’ EXPERIENCES SIX MONTHS IN “ TORTURE FARM ” (P.A.) AUCKLAND. Sept. 20. Prisoners for more than six months in what was called the “torture farm,” the Ofuna prisoner f war camp near Nokoham., in Japan, where the most popular form of punishment comprised beatings with baseball bats, L.o New Zealand officers ol the Fleet Air Arm arrived at Auckland by flying-boat from Sydney. The men were Lieutenants (A) J. G. Godwin, of Blenheim, and S. C. Parker, of Oamaru, both .of the R.N.Z.N.V.R. They were prisoners of the J.panese for 18 months. A third New Zealander, who was taken prisoner with them, Lieutenant < A) J. R. Benge, of Wellington, is returning to New Zealand by hospital ship. The three officers hj i served for three years in the Fleet Air Arm in England, East Africa, and other theatres of war, and were returning to Ceylon to resume flying duties after furlough in New Zealand when their ship vas attacked by three Japanese cruisers about half-way between Australia and Bombay in March, 1944. As the crew and nine passengers, including two women, were t:king to the lifeboats, the cruisers again opened fire, but fortunately did not hit the boats. They were then picked up by a Japanese ship. Ofuna camp, to which they were sent, was reserved principally for airmen and members of submarine crews, against whom the Japanese had a special grudge. The prisoners w'ere interrogated for information, and v. ere beaten if they refused to give it. One American was hit in the lower part of the back 22 times with a baseball bat before he lapsed into unconsciousness The New Zeslanders were' fortunate in not having any information of value, said Lieutenant Godwin, and so they escaped the worst of the punishments, although they were struck and slapped during their stay at the camp. “Mental Torture” “It was sheer mental torture,” he said. “The camp was run by the Japanese navy, and the most menial of Japanese ratings were allowed to beat the prisoners at will.” Beatings occurred for a variety of trivial breaches, such as failure to bow as a mark of respect to the Emperor of Japan morning and night, and failure to say “good-night” to the guards. Two cigarettes a day were allowed each man, one after breakfast and one in the evening. If by any chance a prisoner found a butt and was caught smoking outside of these times, not only was he beaten, but all the occupants of his particular hut were similarly punished. If a man were found to be using more than one blanket he and his fellows were beaten. Generally they slept on sacks in tiny cells, into which, up to 15 were crowded. American airmen from Superfortresses were singled out for the most vicious treatment, and they were shut off from the rest of the camp when it was divided into two while the New Zealanders were there. The New Zealanders hnl no knowledge of wha. was happening across ’.he barrier but repeatedly at night they could hear men screaming with pain. Last Merab the three men were transferred to a headquarters camp near Tokyo, where the discipline was considerably better, although there was the same lack of food and clothing as at Ofuna, snd there were outbreaks of beri-beri. dysentery, and other diseases through malnutrition. Although the camp discipline was not so Dad, men who wera required to work at a nearby steel foundry suffered beatings from civilian workers.

NO MEDICAL SUPPLIES ’ JAPANESE WERE INDIFFERENT (P A ) AUCKLAND, September 20. The most brutal act °*.. Japanese from the medical point of vietv ■was their indifference, said Sur„eon-Lieutenant-Commander J. A. rage, RN a prisoner of the Japanese since the ’fall of Hong Kong in 1941. who arrived at Auckland by flying-boat from Sydney. ■ Lieutenant-Commander Page’-s wife lives at Takapuna. No drugs or medical supplies were provided by the Japanese at the prisoner of war hospital at Ichioka, Osaka, •where Lieutenant-Commander Page was in charge, and it was only sirtce 1943 that the position was eased somewhat by supplies from the American Red Cross. Anything requiring any organisation at all by the Japanese was simply a complete failure, he said. Seven or eight prisoners at the hospital were used for experimental operations by Japanese doctors. Two of them died. The hospital was eventually bombed out by American planes, and conditions improved when it was shifted to a mission school at Kobe. The American bombing was completely devastating, and LieutenantCommander Page estimated that about 90 per cent, of the city of Osaka was razed to the ground, and about 70 per cent, of Kobe was flattened. Those buildings which were still standing were completely gutted. Bad Organisation “So far a§ I was concerned, one of the worst features of Japanese prison camps was the bad organisation for the supply of food,” said Lieutenant C. R. McArthur, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who arrived at Auckland with a party of released prisoners from Malaya. With his wife and their three young children Lieutenant McArthur came to Auckland in 1941 from Malaya, where he was engaged in tin smelting for the Straits Trading Company. He was born in Malaya. Leaving his wife and children here, he returned to Singapore only two months before its fall, and in his own words was taken prisoner before the fighting had really begun. After four years of separation he was looking forward to the reunion with his wife and children. “The youngsters will probably not know me, and I shall probably not recognise them," he said. Saying that he had had experience of many prison camps, and that he had nothing to add to the stories of atrocities except that they were true. Lieutenant McArthur added that he himself had been subjected to “occasional bashes In the face.” The Japanese had sent him from camp to camp at short notice, without any apparent reason. At all of the camps the food situation was bad.