RUSSIAN PRISON CAMPS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25994, 23 December 1949, Page 7

RUSSIAN PRISON CAMPS

Alleged Maltreatment Of Japanese U.S. SPOKESMAN’S CHARGES (N.Z.P.A.—Reuter —Copyright) TOKYO, December 21. The American chairman of the Allied Control Council for Japan (Mr William J. Sebald) to-day accused Russia of being responsible, by neglect, for the deaths of 374,041 Japanese prisoners of war. Mr Sebald made his accusation after the Soviet delegation had walked out of the meeting because the United States insisted that the council should discuss the repatriation of Japanese prisoners from Russia.

Mr Sebald raised the matter at today’s meeting as the result of a request by the Japanese Prime Minister (Mr Shigeru Yoshida) that General MacArthur should appeal to world public opinion about the fate of Japanese prisoners. Mr Sebald accused Russia of treating Japanese prisoners even worse than Jaioan treated Allied prisoners working on the Burma railway. Mr Sebald said that he based his accusations on a tabulated list of 125 prison camps in Russian areas and on “numerous interrogations, oral and written, of repatriates.” In these camps alone, 51,332 prisoners were reported to have died from malnutrition and communicable diseases.

Reports from Repatriates “The interrogation reports given by repatriates from the Amur area in Eastern Siberia were particularly gruesome,” Mr Sebald said. “Of a total of 11.000 internees, 3000 dead were reported. The cumulative death rate of Japanese prisoners averaged 27 per cent.

“The reports were full of pitiful statements. One said: ‘Half our number who were physically weak have died, one after another, from a shortage of food and the cold.’ Another said: ‘Most of our prisoners suffered from malaria, malnutrition, and lung trouble. The prisoners, although sick, were forced to work eight hours a day on the farms. Ticks, fleas, and lice were abundant in the summer. Many prisoners suffered from fever, skin diseases, pneumonia, and.tuberculosis.’ “The repatriates’ report said that the Russians gave the prisoners food only if they completed their daily ‘norm’.”

Mr Sebald finished his accusations by saying: “If we accept in all their gruesomeness the full implication of these ghastly accounts —if all these unbelievable accounts of disregard for humanity are indeed true —we can arrive at the heart-rending conclusion that 374,041 Japanese, formerly in Soviet hands, are now dead."

Mr Sebald made his allegations after the Russian delegate, LieutenantGeneral Kuzma Derevyanko, had accused the United States of aiming at using the Japanese as “cannon fodder for a new war which they are preparing.” Heated exchanges followed. Mr Sebald frequently ruled LieutenantGeneral Derevyanko out of order. Lieutenant-General Derevyanko then led his delegation out of the chamber.

After making his accusations against the Russians, Mr Sebald said he was confident that General MacArthur “would consider most carefully the suggestion by the British Commonwealth delegate on the Allied Control Council (Lieutenant-Colonel W. R. Hodgson) that the council should ask Switzerland to investigate the conditions of Japanese prisoners.”