TORTURE AND BEATINGS

Evening Star, Issue 25577, 1 September 1945, Page 7

TORTURE AND BEATINGS

ORDEALS OF ALLIED PRISONERS INHUMANITY OF THE JAPANESE (Rec. 8 a.m.) NEW YORK, August 31. The treatment afforded our troops ay the Japanese is every bit as horrible and atrocious as that given by the Germans. This is the considered opinion of the ' New York Times ' correspondent . who" has visited Dachau and Buchenwald and who is now with, a hospital ship in Tokio Bay. Many men lost as much as 501bs. They were beaten with baseball bats, rifle butts, bamboo rods, and belts. They were kicked in the stomach and ribs. When they fell, some as often as 200 times during beatings, they -were forced to hold their hands above their heads. Many died as a result. . A Super-Fortress pilot was placed in solitary confinement for six months in order that the Japanese might weaken him and so.gain information. One flyer's fingers were clasped tightly together, a pencil placed between them and twisted till the flesh wore away to the bone. A blunt bamboo pole was twisted against the prisoner's cheek,till no skin remained. Blunted bamboo rods were twisted in the man's ears-.till a profuse haemorrhage caused his collapse. A Super-Fortress bombardier shot down over' Kyushu was beaten by a mob of civilians with bamboo rods and later placed in a Tokio civilian gaol. When the bombers set fire to the city an adjacent building caught fire. The guards took the civilian prisoners, leaving the bombardier and two fellow crewmen locked VQ 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 the guards, blindfolded, bound ,_ and placed in a public square to be killed, but instead were marched ?o a military police headquarters. There they were placed in gaol with prisoners shot down the previous night, including a badly-burned Super-Fortress pilot who begged for medical care and water. Inste'ad he was beaten, kicked, and spat upon till he died in the arms of his 'comrades. The bombardier remained in this hell for 81 days. In order to sleep one man had to recline over a hole used as a toilet. Nearly all the Red Cross packages were stolen, including vital vitamin pills that might have saved the lives of many prisoners. HUNDREDS DIE IN .BORNEO.

A message from Sydney records: About 600 Australian prisoners died at Sandakan (North-east Borneo) between November, 1944, and May of this/ year. They were cruelly treated, overworked, starved, and neglected, andi died of malaria, beriberi, and dysentery, but could have been saved if" the Japanese had provided medical supplies. These revealing facts were told by Gunner Owen Campbell, of Brisbane, who escaped from Sandakan at the end of May. He is now recovering in hospital' at Morotai after wandering for 24 days in the jungle before being found by a friendly native. Campbell, who was taken prisoner at Singapore, said it was not uncommon for prisoners to be worked 24 hours at a stretch, sometimes twice a week. " Bashings were handed out pretty liberally. If the Japanese thought you were not working fast enough they just hit you with shovels, bits of wood, or lumps of iron. They used to flog prisoners with a dog whip, and once they made all the officers stand by while they whipped one of our men." Campbell declared that one man was shot for trying to escape from Sandakan, where Campbell was taken in January of this year. The Japanese oommaiidant then starved all the prisoners for 24 hours. " Close on 600 Australians are buried at Sandakan. They could have been saved if. the Japanese had given us medical supplies. We had to bury our boys in common graves, five or six at a time." Of 5,500 Australians jn Singapore*. I,2oo'are hospital cases, according to a broadcast from Singapore picked un by the Prisoner-of-war Relatives Association listening post. The Japanese announcer said the message was from Lieutenant-colonel F. G. Gallaghan, senior officer of' Australian prisoners of war in Malaya. The broadcast said about 80 per cent, of the men in Singapore were . suffering from chronic malaria, and were in indifferent health. The men in Java and Sumatra, according to the latest messages received in Singapore, are in worse condition, addedi the broadcast. Supplies of atebrin and quinine were urgently needed. The All-India radio, quoting- a message from the Japanese commander of Allied prisoners in Singapore, said there were 30,500 Allied prisoners of war at present on the island', of whom 14,00 are Indians, 0,760, British, 5,516 Australians, 4,040 Dutch, and 184 . others.-