ALLIED AIRMAN
MURDERED BY JAPANESE
Eec. 1 p.m. SYDNEY, Oct. 6. The barbaric murder of a young Allied airman by a Japanese officer is revealed in a diary which was among, the documents captured at Salamaua. The airman, v/hose plane was shot down by anti-aircraft fire, was beheaded by a Japanese officer, after ■which his body was mutilated and flung into a water-filled bomb crater. The execution was carried out with a ceremonial sword which was then handed to a superior seaman who, to ( quote the eye-witness, "laid open the abdomen with one sweep."
The diary records that the airman, who was a captain or flight lieutenant from Port Moresby, remained unshaken to the last. It was announced at General MacArthur's headquarters that the officer who committed the atrocity was Sub (First Class) Komai, the next senior responsible commander was Lieutenant-Commander Tsukioka. The State Department at. Washington announced that Japanese officials "would have to answer for the atrocity at the end of the war. ..;■■.., •
"The incident should awaken Americans to the realisation of what we are facing in the Pacific," said Representative Mcl yin J./Maas, of the House Naval-. Affairs. Committee. "I hope ■it ■will arouse the High. Command as well as the public to the necessity for a major offensive against Japan."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19431006.2.72
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1943, Page 6
Word Count
213ALLIED AIRMAN Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1943, Page 6
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