JAP. WAR CRIMINALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 September 1945, Page 5

JAP. WAR CRIMINALS

BLACK DRAGON SOCIETY NOTABLES LISTED”FOR ARRESTS MORE STORIES OF BRUTALITIES

TOKIO, September 12. General MacArthur has ordered the dissolution of the Black Dragon Society and the arrest oi several of its top members. Those to be arrested ure*~~“ * Taketora Ogata, at present Secretary to the Cabinet and formerly President of the Cabinet Information Board under Koiso. Colonel Kingoro Hashimoto who ordered the bombing of the American gunboat Panay in the Yangtse River in 1937. . , . A former Prime Minister, Koki Hirota, who as Foreign Minister signed the Anti-Comintern Pact m Ryohei Uchida, one of the two organisers of the Black Dragon Society in 1902. .... ■ Toyosaburo Kikuchi, a former Director of Education. . Professor Genchi Kato, of fl okio University', . described as an authority on Shintoism. < Japanese sources said that. Seigo Nankano, who is also listed, committed suicide in 1943 after resigning from the House of Representatives. The Japanese claimed that the other organiser of the Black Dragon Society, Yohihisa Kuzuo, and also Hidezo Toyama, a son of the late Mitsuru Toyama, who was a Black Dragon leader for years, were not included on General MacArthur’s list. Jorge Vargas, the Philippine puppet government’s ambassador to Japan, has been arrested at the Imperial Hotel in Tokio. NEW YORK, September 13. The Associated Press correspondent at Tokio says: Well informed Japanese reported that Uchida, who was on the Black Dragon Society list, died in 1938, and also that Ogata was not connected with the society when it was dissolved late in August. The Japanese said these errors were surprising and demonstrated the Americans are not fully informed on the society’s organisation and membership. The Americans are likely to lose face because of the inaccuracies and the failure to name two Japanese generally considered the key members. “CAUGHT OFF GUARD”

NEW YORK, September 13. Commenting on the arrest of Japanese war criminals, the coriespondent of the “New York Times” in Tokio says: “General MacArthur caught a number of guilty men when they were off their guard and thinking that such action would be slow. Most of them feared death. Altogether. 40 arrests have been ordered, including the entire Cabinet, at the time of Pearl Harbour. Togo, who was then Prime'Minister, is reported to be hiding in the hills. “These 40 men are merely the precursors of thousands on whom General MacArthur has detailed reports. He knows the whereabouts ot the ‘rough-stuff’ boys and girls. Prisoners who do not commit suicide will appear before courts-martial and be sentenced. “Behind General MacArthur in this move is the Japanese Government, which is made up principally of non-military elements which have been trembling under threats from the Black Dragon and other supposedly secret organisations." PUBLICATION BANNED. (Rec. 11.30 a.m.) TOKIO, September 13. United States Bth Army Headquarters announced that the Japanese have been authorised to round up their own nationals mentioned in General MacArthur’s “wanted list,” but made it clear that unless the Japanese act promptly the Americans will carry out the arrests. The newspaper “Mainichi" says the Japanese Government, without explanation, banned the publication in Japan of General MacArthur’s list of persons wanted for questioning. The newspaper described the ban as typical bureaucratic stupidity.

S.HIMADA ARRESTED ■ YOKOHAMA, Sept. 13. Admiral Shigetaro Shimada, who directed the Pearl Harbour attack, was arrested by the United States Army at his home near Yokohama. He agreed readily to go with the officers, who were conducting wide sweeps to pick up war criminals. Replying to requests to hurry along, he said: “Be quiet. No suicide, no suicide.” • WAR CRIMINALS' TRIAL. (Rec. 10.40 a.m.) WASHINGTON, September 13. A high Government authority made it clear that the United States hopes for quick, vigorous action against the Japanese war criminals, paralleling the measures taken against the German war criminals, and also hopes to apply to Japan the theory evolved by the American prosecutor. Judge Jackson, in, Germany that the persons responsible’for starting aggressive wars should be adjudged guilty ot war crimes. The United States also contemplates the same procedure in trying local war criminals nt the scene of the crimes.

MAIN KIND OF CRIMES (Recd. 1 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 13. All Governments in the war against Japan are preparing their own lists ; of war criminals, but some months will probably elapse before the big j trials can begin, says the Associated | Press. This does not mean, however,'| 'that some trials cannot be held almost. immediately for Japanese guilty of | specific misdeeds such os murder and ! torture. English. Americans, Chinese and Russians are expected to compose ■ the military tribunal and the prose- ; cution staff, but Australia demands a part in the proceedings. Tokio is ex- I pected to be the seat of the main trials, because, like Nuremberg, tn the ; case of Germany, it is a symbol of Japanese military aggressiveness. ■ The main kind of crimes the Japanese face are: Firstly, crimes against peace. This means a man can be charged and convicted loi plunging the nation into war. This will require careful legal preparation and it may be five months before the Allies aie readv to begin these trials; secondly, crimes against humanity. These involve racial persecution and deliberate torture and destruction of helpless people. These trials will mostly be held in the localities where the crimes occurred and theie should be little delay. Thirdly, crimes against the law of war. This covers actions like killing shot-down aviators. The Allies in Germany adopted a new idea putting the whole organisation on trial.. This same idea wd be carried out in Japan though just what organisations might be tried is so far not known. The Black Diagon Society is a possibility. SUGIYAMA YOKOHAMA, September 13. , Marshal Sugiyama shot himself at bis office. His wife shot and killed herself at home. Sugiyama, wearing his full Armv uniform, with re-ws of

service ribbons, sat alone for several hours in his office, which is as plainly furnished as a barracks. Then Tanaka heard a shot and rushed in. Sugiyama was the Commander who would have had the task of repelling General Eichelberger’s prospective invasion of Japan. The Marshal’s Eastern Headquarters included Tokio. Sugiyama conferred with General Eichelberger at Yokohama last week. Sugiyama was not named as a wai criminal in any of General MacArthur’s lists, but there is little doubt that he was considered as one. Sugiyama had an appointment with the Empress of Japan for an exclusive interview, but his aide, Colonel flanaka, telephoned asking for a postponement because of “unexecuted business, claiming Sugiyama’s time. Before shooting himself through the head, Sugiyama said: “I regret that the war ended in such a way as it did. As I was in an important post. I keenly feel my responsibility, and 1 am waiting for a significant opportunity to kill myself.” Sugiyama was the Commander of the East Japan Defence Corps , and was a member of the Imperialist Kwantung Army clique. TOJO’S TEMPERATURE

TOKIO, Sept. 13. . Tojo was given another blood transfusion and was resting easily at 8 a.m. to-day, Japanese time. Large quantities of penicillin have been injected at three-hour intervals. Tojo is not out of danger. His temperature is 106.4 degrees and his pulse rate is 112, but he is still conscious. He has been given a bed with a mattress instead ot the cot on which he had been lying since he was brought into hospital last night. WHY HARAKIRI NOT TRIED (Recd. 1 p.m.) TOKIO, Sept. 13. Asked why he shot himself instead of performing the traditional harakiri ceremony, Tojo told a correspondent that he was afraid he might miss. He explained the ceremony required a performer to bring the knife up and across the stomach while a second parson stood behind with a sword to cut off the head. He had nobody to carry out the second part. When asked about facing trial, lqio said, “I have nothing to say. it is all being decided by the United States Government. He said he Kit mucl better. His treatment had been good and the Americans were abiding by the international law.

JAP. TRADE AND SUPPLIES TOKIO, September 13. Iwajiro Nada, Director of the NipIpon Cotton and Silk Trading Company; Kiyoshi Miyazaki, the Prestcten iof the Mitsui and Company: and Tasuo Sumii and Kisashi Matsunoto, Managing Directors ot the Mitsui Holding Company, told the Press that Japan needs the following supplies. Two million tons of rice, two million tons of wheat, twenty thousand million feet of timber, and eight hundred thousand bales of cotton. She needs these almost immediately. They claimed that Japanese business is at a complete standstill. They were asked how it was .expected to pay for their materials.. They said that they must use silk, pottery, tea, and such items to pay, although there now are virtually nc silk stocks available, and the silk industry, which made eight hundred thousand bales annually before the war, is now cut to about one-third ol that. Japan looks to America for her principal market, since ninety per cent, of the total Japanese pre-war production was exported there. They said foreign ships must be used lor any resumption of trade since Japan’s merchant fleet has almost been destroyed. There is only about 350,000 tons of shipping left, out of Japan's former six million tons. The Japanese expressed a wish for an immediate resumption of trade between Japan and other countries, although Mr. Miyazaki said that it would be impossible to begin trade at present. The business men said that the clothing and feeding of the people is .number one problem. They added that ’if the United States failed to buy Japan’s silk, it would dislocate her economy. They did not know if they would be able to compete with the rayon industry. A British Press correspondent asked if the Japanese pre-war policy of purchasing cotton and subsequently .flooding British markets with cheap, finished goods would be continued. The correspondent then asked: “What is Japan’s economy based on now?” The reply was: “Nothing.” The business leaders replied, that the Allied countries had the power to fix export quotas. Mr. Kurusu told an Associated Press correspondent: “For Japan to rush into democracy would be disastrous. The retention of the Emperor is paramount. Getting rid of him would do Japan more harm than good. The occupation changes within Japan must be gradual, or the world would find Japan in a grip as bad as that of the military clique which precipitated the .war. Mr. Kurusu predicted that only dark days are ahead of Japan. He added: “The government needs many (Changes so that the people will have a greater voice.”

NIMITZ’S ESTIMATE. (Rec. 11.30 a.m.) ■ TOKIO, September 13. Domei reports that Japan has formally abolished Imperial Headquarters in accordance with General MacArthur's orders. The Japanese Government told General MacArthur it was dismissing students of the Japanese Naval College immediately. Tatsuo Kawai, a former Minister to Australia and latterly Foreign Office spokesman, has been appointed Chief of the Board of Information, succeeding Taketora Ogato. Domei odds there is no indication . Ogata is beirw rel’eved of his position as Chief Secretary to the Cabinet. “The Japanese are busv tolling the Americans what thev think we desire to hear.’’ said Admiral Nimitz in an interview on Guam. “The Japanese are at present trving to get. along with us because Ihe surrender le/t them stunned, but later, thev will use every means, including propaganda. to recover fh«elr independence as early as possible.”

JAPANESE ATROCITIES OFFICERS WORSE TREATED LONDON. September 12. During the Japanese occupation of Amboina they beheaded 17 Australian prisoners because they left the camo at nieht in search of food. Of the 800 prisoners originally on the island, more than half have died from want of food. The Japanese officers responsible for the care of the prisoners are known. “Three American brigadier-gen-erals who were taken prisoner with Lieutenant-General Wainwright, the defender of Correigdo'r, saw Japanese guards hit him four times so hard that the general staggered back 10 feet.” says the San Francisco correspondent of the Associated Press. “Brigadier-General Carl Drake said that they received most brutal

treatment in a Formosa camp, where they.were constantly beaten, humiliated and forced to work all day. “All of us, including Lieutenant-General Wainwright, existed on watery soup and a handful of rice,” he said. “We used to steal a few potatoes from the garden. They treated the officers worse than the enlisted men. The Japanese commander declared that we had no right to live.” SUPPLIES ARRIVING

A .small Allied. landing party has sent a radio message to the Netherlands East Indies Government information services, stating that 19,000 women and children are in Batavia. Among the internees 2000 are seriously ill and half of them are in need of medical treatment. The message Tsaid that the medical personnel was adequate, but the available hospital accommodation was being worked to capacity, and there was an acute shortage of drugs. Four Allied relief teams, consisting of British, Dutch, and Indonesian personnel, have been dropped on Sumatra.

A Dutch engineer is to land tomorrow at Sourabaya to prepare for Allied landings. There are about 4000 prisoners. of war and 120,000 civilian internees in Java, and the Netherlands Government will send stocks of food, clothing, and medical supplies from India. A large number of Allied prisoners, including 1050 English and 12 Australians captured at Singapore, many of them no more than living skeletons, have arrived at Manila from Formosa aboard two carriers and four destroyers. Even after a fortnight’s good food following their liberation, many of these feeble skeletons still have glazed eyes, were in a stupor, and were too weak to stand.

Twelve freed prisoners of war are missing from a Liberator which crashed into the sea off Formosa today, says the correspondent of the Associated Press in Manila. A naval vessel rescued five of the crew and eight other prisoners who parachuted. The nationality of the prisoners has not been announced. The aeroplane was one of nearly 100 making a mass flight from Okinawa to Manila. MURDERED FOR BLOOD. (Rec. 11 a.m.) YOKOHAMA, September 13. .Captain Stanton Allison, medical director aboard the hospital ship Benovolence, said a medical cdrpsman captured at Corregidor told him a Japanese doctor at Tokio’s Shinagawa . hospital deliberately bled American prisoners to death' to obtain blood for transfusions to the Japanese. “PROPERTY OF EMPEROR.” (Rec. 1 p.m.) MANILA, September 13. Americans entering Camp O’Donnell, Luzon, in 1942 were told by the camp commandant they were the personal property of the Emperor and he was graciously allowing them to live, said Colonel Charles Lawrence, who captured Bataan. The commandant advised senior American officers to learn Japanese, telling them they would eventually be sent back to America to teach the language and would get important jobs k'nen the Japanese occupied the United States, Lawrence was later transferred to the infamous Kareko Camp, Formosa, where the conditions were horrible. He said it was commanded by Captain Iwamura. who represented Japan in the Washington Disarmament Conference which resulted in the 5-5-3 ratio, and eventually brought about his retirement in disgrace' because he permitted Japan to accept the ratio. Iwamura still nursed a grudge against America, and took it out on the prisoners.

SAVAGERY IN SUMATRA

(Recd. 12.50 p.m.) SINGAPORE, Sept. 13. Accounts of incredible brutality have been given by two British officers who were flown out of Sumatra yesterday after three and a-half years of captivity in appalling conditions. They gave the first authoritative story of the suffering of British, Dutch and Australian prisoners of war under the Japanese in Sumatra. Three Australian-manned Dakota transports flew to Pakan Baroe airfield in Central Sumatra yesterday and located 4840 prisoners. The planes carried 15,0001 b of supplies and medical stores. The two British officers said the prisoners were flogged to work until they dropped in their tracks, where they were deliberately starved to death. Desperately ill men were allowed to lie without treatment. Australian, British and Dutch women, including nurses, -were herded' into a filthy camp under worse conditions than the men. The Japanese set out deliberately to degrade the prisoners below the level of coolies. Screaming Korean guards beat the sick and wounded till they dropped and often died. They mauled them like a pack of jackals. Officers and men were imprisoned for weeks in cases where they were unable to lie or stand, and were slowly starved. Drunken guards smashed hospital huts and kicked patients from their beds. Tortures, fiendish in their ingenuity, were frequent. . “We were burying people at the rate of six and seven a day. The Japanese refused to allow them, decent burial and the bodies were simply wrapped in matting and dumped in the jungle,” said one officer.

BATAVIA NOT SO BAD. (Rec. 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, September 13. The War Office announced that medical administrative teams parachuted in Batavia on September 7 reported 1250 English war prisoners in Batavia, and large numbers ol civilian internees, of whom 600 are British. The food situation was adequate and conditions in the military camps fairly good with no starvation. f ifteen war prisoner camps were located in Sumatra, five of which house 1800 British prisoners. The cruiser Cumberland is speeding to Java, its decks piled high with medical stores, food and comforts for the freed Allies' prisoners and internees. JAP. HORROR SHIP TOKIO, Sept. 13. A ghastly ordeal was endured by 1,800 British prisoners on the Japanese horror ship, Lisbon Maru, and when the vessel was sunk only 943 survived. Many of ihese died, later in prison camps. After an Allied submarine torpedoed the Lisbon Maru on October 1, 1942, the prisoners were battened down in the overcrowded, stinking holds, among the sick and dying. Then, when nearly all the Japanese had left, some of the prisoners broke through the hatches and overcame the sentries. The victims were members of British units, a few New Zealanders and Australians, and dockyard police captured when Hong Kong fell. When the men were loaded on to the ship for the voyage to Japan scores were suffering from diphtheria and dysentery. They were packed aboard with some hundreds of Japanese soldiers. In the end hold 334 men were packed in a space 40ft. by 26ft. There were more than 1000 in another hold, many being unable to lie down. After the torpedo hit the ship the dying and sick men on deck were bundled into holds and hatches which were battened down and covered with tarpaulins. The prisoners were kept sealed up in that way for 48 hours and 100 died.

The ship sank on October 3 taking 100 of the trapped men to the bottom. Japanese seamen took shots at the men in the water. Other- prisoners were picked up and taken to Shanghai. The surviving 943 were taken to prison camps in Japan. Here many more died and the estimated number of survivors is between 300 and 500. WOMEN’S PRIVATIONS. SYDNEY, September 13. Shocking stories of beatings, hunger and privations at the hands of the Japanese were told by four Army sisters and 12 civilian women when they reached Sydney after spending three years in prisoner-of-war camps in Japan. All were taken prisoner at Rabaul on January 22, 1942. Without exception all the women were systematically starved by the Japanese, and were reduced to a stage where, through sheer weakness, they had to drag themselves upstairs on hands and knees. At Yokohama the women were reduced to such a condition of hunger’ that the entrails of cats and dogs were .considered real delicacies. One sister Jost five and a half stone in weight, -and the others nearly as much. Extra .food was eagerly eaten from the leavings of the Japanese guards, who in every instance were horribly diseased and no longer able to fight. The sisters all scavenged in the pig buckets for morsels of still edible food. Failure by them to bow to their Japanese masters resulted in beatings and blows on the head from rifle butts. Each evening the women had to bow towards the Emperor’s Palace. They used to say in English “Dash the Emperor!” “God Save the King.”

CARE OF N. ZEALANDERS R.N.Z.A.F. Official War Correspondent SINGAPORE, Sept. 13. There have been no smiles throughout the surrender proceedings conducted by Admiral Mountbatten, and no doubts have been left on the score of who won and who is now dictating the conditions. An honoured guest has been Major Sidney Wild, who was forced to carry the flag of surrender when Singapore was lost. Lady Mountbatten, who is established at Government House, sends a special message to .New Zealand that everything possible is being done for the New Zealanders who have been rescued, along with everyone else. Sir Keith Park leads the Air Force here and Miss Jean Begg, of Dunedin, is with the official party. Three aircraft arrived from New Zealand to-day and another will arrive to-morrow. They brought food, including toheroa soup. . The first New Zealand internees have now left Singapore mostly on the the way to England and India. The movement of prisoners of war and internees from Singapore is well under way. It is estimated that by the week-end no more than 1000 bound for the United Kingdom will be left on the island. The movement of personnel to Australia is going a little slower but by the end of next week, most Australians and with them New Zealanders should have had the opportunity of starting the journey by sea or air. Four Dakotas, flown from New Zealand, have arrived bringing medical stores, comforts and medical staff. It is intended to fly the New Zealanders home as they become fit enough, for the journey. Those not considered able to undertake the air trip will go by sea. CONTROL OF HONG KONG. LONDON, September 12. British commandos moved into Hong Kong to-day to take over control from the Royal Navy, fl he lorTnal Japanese surrender is expected to take i"*lace within a few days. Ihe British force was brought from Ceylon in a convoy originally intended for landings in Malaya. . H.M.S. Duke of York, Admiral Sir Bruce Frasers flagship, left Okinawa to-day for Hong Kong.

SHANGHAI CONDITIONS. SHANGHAI, September 13. Business men who were interned for the duration emerged from enforced isolation to find their homes stripped and looted, their moveable possessions scattered to the four winds. Their first task is the drawing up ot ar. inventory of losses.for inclusion in a Reparations Bill to be presented to the Japanese. Japanese firms remain in possession of confiscated business premises, although an exodus is slowly going on. The Japanese army is ■still numerically superior to all others in Shanghai. It is imposisble to put on much pressure. Hungja Road, .which before the war was Shanghai’s most fashionable residential street, is now little better than a row of stables. .One of the finest mansions in the street was converted into a barn for Army horses. There is little to choose between the barren, foul-smelling condition of this once beautiful home and houses occupied by the Japanese soldiers.

INDO-CHINA, NEW YORK, September 12. A message from Hanoi says that the Indo-China Nationalist Party has proclaimed Indo-China free from French control and has plastered the capital with signs reading, “Independence or death.” The Nationalists have joined the Communists in a united front. The Premier of the recently-formed Provisional Government of IndoChina (So Chin-minh) said that the Annamites intended to keep their independence at all costs. He refused to discuss his own, or his Ministers’ political affiliations and added: “The •French said I was a Communist bandit.” Minh has asked the Allies foi steamers to bring surplus rice from Saigon for 2,000,000 natives who are starving because of crop failures. SURRENDERIN BURMA. (Rec. 10.40 a.m.) RANGOON, September 13. Brigadier E. F. Armstrong, Chief of Staff to Lieutenant-General Sir Montagu Stopford. G.O,C. 12th. Army, received the surrender of the Japanese Army in Burma in Rangoon. General Ichida signed the surrender document. Lord Mountbatten is due at Kualalumpur, the capital of the Federated Malay States, to-day, to receive the Japanese surrender there. Royal Marines completed the occupation of Penang without incident, says the official Navy reporter. The evacuation of the Japanese troops was completed and the seaplane base and airfield taken over. An air service to Singapore has opened. Reuter’s Singapore correspondent savs the Japanese officers at Singapore and Malaya must salute Allied officers, according to a clause of the surrender signed by Itagaki. The Allies will return but not initiate salutes.

SITTANG RIVER FORCE (Recd. 1 p.m.) RANGOON, Sept. 13. Gurkha troops landed at Mokpalin on the east bank of the Sittang River. They are the first organised body of Allied troops* to land there since the Burma retreat in 1942. Every precaution was taken to prevent incidents, but the landing was unopposed. It was watched by three Japanese soldiers and two officers, including a staff officer who was driven from his headquarters, and a lieutenant who acted as interpreter. British officers discussed with the Japanese the boundary limits of their respective forces. ISLANDS SURRENDER. (Rec. 11.45 a.m.) SYDNEY, September 14. Lieutenant-General Adachi, Commander of the Japanese 18th Army

in New Guinea, yesterday surrendered his 14,000 troops to Major-Gen-eral H. C. Robertson, G.O.C. 6th Australian Division. Adachi’s surrender means that all the Japanese area commanders in the northern islands have now formally signed the surrender instrument. Three years of isolation from the Allied world of one of the loneliest islands on the globe was broken yesterday when the Australian frigate, Diamantina, hove to off Nauru and called on the Japanese garrison to surrender. The Australians have made plans to disarm all Japanese troons in the main settlement on the west coast and to withdraw them to rear positions. . A surrender on similar terms will take place at Ocean Island.