SIMILAR TO GERMAN

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 54, 1 September 1945, Page 7

SIMILAR TO GERMAN

HORRIBLE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyrioht.) NEW YORK, August 31. The treatment given Allied troops by the Japanese was every bit as horrible as that given by the Germans to their prisoners. This is the considered opinion of a "New York Times" correspondent who has visited Dachau and Buchenwald and is now on a hospital ship in Tokio Bay. Many men lost as much as 50 pounds in weight. They were beaten with baseball bats, rifle butts, bamboo rods, and belts, and kicked in the stomach and ribs when they fell, some as many as 200 times. During beatings they were forced to hold their hands above their heads. Many died as a result of maltreatment. A Super-Fortress pilot was placed in solitary confinement for six months in an endeavour to induce him to give 'information. One man's fingers were clasped tightly together and a pencil was placed between them and twisted till the flesh wore away to the bones. The blunt end of a bamboo pole was twisted against a prisoner's cheek until no skin remained. A blunted bamboo rod was twisted in a man's ears until profuse hemorrhage caused his collapse. A Super-Fortress bombardier who was shot down at Kyushu was beaten by a mob of civilians with bamboo rods and later was placed in the Tokio civilian gaol. Then bombers set fire to the city. The adjacent building caught fire. Guards took the civilian prisoners, leaving the bombardier and two fellow-members of the crew locked in separate cells. The gaol caught fire. They broke the locks in time, wrapped themselves in blankets, and burst through the last door. They were recaptured by guards, blindfolded, bound, and placed in a public square to be killed, but instead were marched to military police headquarters. There they were placed in gaol with prisoners who had been shot down the previous night, including a badly burned SuperFortress pilot who begged for medical care and water. Instead he was beaten, kicked, and spat upon till he died in the arms of his comrades. The bombardier remained in this cell, Bft by sft, for 81 days. In order to sleep, one man had to recline over a hole used as a toilet.

Nearly all Red Cross packages were stolen, including vital vitamin pills that might have saved the lives of many prisoners.

All of the 1494 Allied prisoners of war who have been liberated in the Yokohama area are suffering from malnutrition, and many of them show evidence of brutal treatment, says an Associated Press correspondent. The evacuees include many Australians, who were found in Kawasaki, where they had erected a huge sign: "Come and get us—Aussies." Other evacuees were American military survivors from Bataan and Guam and some Wake Island civilians.