JAP. PRISON CAMPS

Evening Star, Issue 25673, 22 December 1945, Page 5

JAP. PRISON CAMPS

RED GROSS SUPPLIES WITHHELD DISCLOSURES AT TRIAL YOKOHAMA,'Dec. 21.. ' Japanese officers and guards at Mitsushima prison camp, near Tokio, attempted to mislead a representative of the International Red Cross into the belief that Red Cross supplies' were freely distributed among Allied prisoners of war by establishing fake canteens, which disappeared half an hour after the representative's visit was concluded. This was disclosed in evidence at the trial of Tatsuo Tsuchiya. The statement was made in an affidavit by Lieutenant-colonel Allen Cory, a Bataan prisoner, who was one of those whom Tsuchiya was accused of mishandling. When the Red Cross representative, who was identified only as Pestalozzo, visited the camp, the authorities established a canteen, the shelves of which were stocked with Red Cross supplies, which had been sent to prisoners, but which the- guards diverted to their own use. The Japanese attempted to give the impression, that it was regularly open to the British and the Americans.-Lieutenant-colonel Cory's affidavit said the prisoners were told before Pestalozzo's visit, " You must answer all questions favourably to the Japanese,'" but instead the prisoners told him about the bad food, lack of clothing, improper diet, and medical treatment, brutal beatings, filthy living conditions, and misappropriation of Red Cross supplies. Pestalozzo told the prisoners it was a regrettable situation, but Japan was not a signatory to the Geneva Convention, and prisoners were, therefore,' treated according to regulations laid down by the Japanese High Command. > The prisoners who gave evidence to, Pestalozzo were subsequently punished.