SINGAPORE ATROCITIES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 61, 10 September 1945, Page 5

SINGAPORE ATROCITIES

LIST BEING MADE

SYDNEY, September^

A complete list of the atrocities against the Australian prisoners of war on Singapore Island, and indictments of the Japanese who were responsible, have been prepared by the commandant of the Australian'troops in Changi prison, says a special correspondent of the Australian Associated Press. Until action is taken to bring the Japanese to justice, specific cases will not be revealed

The most appalling atrocities are believed to be the shooting and in some cases the burning alive of a party of more than 100 wounded. Other tortures peculiar •to the Orient were widely* practised. The Japanese in Singapore massacred 150,000 Chinese during the occupation, according to trustworthy Chinese sources. They killed tens of thousands in displays of expert swordmanship, in which they took pride in their ability to lop oft a Chinese head with one two-handed stroke.

Thousands of Chinese who refused to co-operate in the new order were mown down by machine-gun fire, falling into trenches which they had previously been forced to dig. Every now and then Japanese secret police took away male internees who. almost without exception, came back dying, said Lady Shenton Thomas, wife of the High Commissioner for the Malay States, in an interview with Reuters correspondent, describing the ordeal she and fellow-internees underwent in Singapore gaol. She said it was dreadful to see big, burly men taken away and return weighing only five stone.

The atrocities were committed in the V.M.C.A. building in Singapore, which the Japanese made the headquarters of their secret police.

The Japanese made a propaganda film at an Allied war prisoners' camp in Siam, and its cruelty, deceitfulness, and stupidity give it undisputed Japanese authorship, states a message from Kandy. A film unit was established outside the prisoners' canteen, and prisoners filed past the camera, receiving fruit, eggs, Red Cross parcels, and mail, which the Japanese took back at the end of the performance. Scenes in the canteen showed men seated at tables piled high with food. The camera was operated for a few minutes and then the men were ordered to stop eating and were marched out of the room and Japanese officers took their places at the table. Lieutenant-Colonel J. M. Williams, of New-South Wales, said: '"Some of the boys did well in those few minutes."

The film director arranged as a finale men marching down a road singing "Bless 'em all." The prisoners sang an Army version, to the delight of the innocent sound recorder. "This was the one bright moment in three and a half years of hell," Colonel Williams said.