JAPANESE ATROCITIES

Evening Star, Issue 25633, 6 November 1945, Page 5

JAPANESE ATROCITIES

THOROUGH AUSTRALIAN INVESTIGATIONS

HUNDREDS ARRESTED AS WAR CRIMINALS (Rec. 11.5 a.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 5. Australian investigations into atrocities have been so extensive that Australia will probably be the first Pacific ally to complete the task of punishing the Japanese, reports the 1 Associated Press correspondent at Moretai. The Australian First Army, based on Rabaul and controlling New Guinea and New Britain, has arrested hundreds as war criminals, while the force occupying Borneo and the Netherlands East Indies areas eastward of Lobok has arrested more than 400 Japanese. The Australians in one area exhumed a number of headless bodies, and l found others with the execution mask still across the eyes. Most of the victims were Indians, Javanese, and Malays. The Australians obtained from General Ishii, commander of the Japanese Thirty-second . Division, details of a number of war crimes, some hitherto unsuspected. One neat Japanese report detailed the massacre of 41 lepers at Halmahera, and named the executioner and the responsible commanders. Another candid report listed beheadings and shootings. The Australians arrested 74 Japanese listed as commanders and executioners.