THE INHUMAI JAP.

Evening Star, Issue 25180, 20 May 1944, Page 4

THE INHUMAI JAP.

ILL-TREATMENT OF fiSSIONARIES AGED SISTERS BUfD ROAD (N.Z.P.A. Special AustCorrespondent) SYDJJSY, May 19. An Australian Luthran missionary was tied to a treo andcxposed to tho weather for a fortnigt after capture by the Japanese at pladang (New Guinea ). He was only at intervals with mouldy bfcutts. This ,is otio of the stories of Jianese brutality told by 92 rescued by American troops at Ipllaiidia (Dutch New Guinea) on Apij 52. The missionaries have now r ched Australia, and are recovering; f. an American army hospital. ~._[' , - _..» Many lost" their hvi when a lm>ton enemy ship convejng them to Hollandia was strafed byAmed planes oft Wewak. Of 154 kepjon deck by the Japanese all excepts© were- killed, died of wounds, or (were wounded. Sixty died on the sb, and 12 died after reaching Hollalia. An operation perfoped by a German surgeon, Dr Theo Br n, saved the life of a Catholic priest, Ifcher Lorenz Mai. whose leg was smhed during an aerial attack and tned gangrenous. An amputation was jsrformed with, an ordinary handsaw, pable to obtain from the Japanese nfe than a quarter of the cocaine reqiied/or an anesthetic, Dr Braun Sped to dull the priest's fiain by givg him whisky. _ All the missionari! at Hollaiidia, including aged sisterswere put to work by the Japanese builng roads, making shelters, and tendi gardens. When Allied bombers cai over they were forced to remain tho open while the Japanese hid (shelters the missionaries had dug. pey were not allowed to keep a) of the produce from their gardens! T, »s went to the Japanese garrisonjTho food tor the missionaries was oil pound or rife each week and a sma| canister of meat between 100 each ff- " Missionaries $ not supposed to steal," said one o he .rescued priests, " but we had soil experts."