DEPRESSING PLACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1945, Page 5

DEPRESSING PLACE

TOKIO UNDER THE BOMBS Rec. 11 a.m. LONDON, May 20. Burmese citizens who left Japan four months ago, report seeing gangs of European prisoners of war, whom they believed to be Australians, working as labourers in the streets of Tokio, says the Rangoon correspondent of "The Times." The prisoners wore boots and overcoats, but their uniforms were in tatters and they looked unkempt. . The Burmese says that the raids by Super-Fortresses, although increasingly destructive, are not affecting Japanese morale much. They saw no signs of dearth of man-power, but there was ruthless conscription of men and women. Even geishas were working in factories. They described Tokio as dull and depressing. The authorities had decided that levity and amusement were improper while men were dying in the battlefields. [The Japanese have recently decided to reinstate amusements.] The Burmese says that the Japanese showed no disposition to do anything but fight on to the limit of the nation's resources. Travellers who have arrived in Rancon recently from Singapore report that the Chinese .Communists in Malaya are getting restive. Although the Japanese maintain rigid control of Singapore proper, they say there have been frequent clashes between the Chinese and Japanese and proJapanese elements in outlying districts.