IN A JAPANESE GAOL

Evening Star, Issue 21785, 30 July 1934, Page 8

IN A JAPANESE GAOL

MR BICKERTON’S EXPERIENCES ALLEGATIONS OF BRUTAL TREATMENT • • Press Association--By Telegraph—Copyright, LONDON, July 29. (Received July 30, at 10 a.m.) , Mr Bickerton, in an article in the ‘ Manchester Guardian,’ describing his experiences in Japan, says: “ The inhuman treatment I received is part of the normal methods of breaking the spirit of a prisoner. I was confined to a cell 12ft by sft, in which there were never fewer than nine, often fourteen, prisoners. Three were raving mad. I was not allowed baths or exercise during my twenty-four days’ confinement. The brutality of the guards was unimaginable. They, stripped and beat the prisoners till their- backs were a row of weals.” Mr Bickerton describes how after several days’ cross-examination the detectives, incensed at his refusal to adroit their insinuations, trod on his toes and kicked, smacked, and punched him, saying: “ It is no use being gentle with, this beast.” They produced a baseball bat, saying it was six years since it was used and they were a bit out of practice. They cracked him on the legs and thighs when he declined to answer questions. The following day they again kicked and punched him to help his memory. The treatment was changed after a visit' by the British Consul, which made his interrogators uncomfortable, but later, when Mr Bickerton persisted in his refusal to disclose who gave him a copy of a Communist paper, they beat him with a bamboo stick until he collapsed. Later the detectives worked themselves into a frenzy, grabbed Mr Bickerton by the hair, and banged his head against a cupboard. When Mr Bickerton protested to the chief of police he was told: “ Men are not gods. Police officers are men. When prisoners are obstinate officers naturally lor6 their tempers.”