JAPANESE CRIMINALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 October 1945, Page 5

JAPANESE CRIMINALS

YAMASHITA’S TRIAL TO OPEN IMMEDIATELY (Rec. 10 a.m.) TOKIO, October 3. General MacArthur announced that Marshal Yamashita will be tried immediately at Manila by a United States .Military Commission as a war criminal.' The Commission will be composed of Major-General Russell Reynolds (President), two other Major-Generals and two BrigadierGenerals. The public will be admitted to the trial. Yamashita will be permitted to choose his own counsel if he wishes. The charge is that between October 9, 1944, when he. assumed command of the Philippines, and September 2, 1945, at Manila and other places in the Philippines, he failed in his duty as Commander to control the operations of members of his command, permitting them to commit brutal atrocities and other high crimes against peoples of the United States, its Allies and dependencies, particularly the Philippines, and he thereby violated the laws of The Philippines Government filed 21 charges of treason against Teofilo Sison No. 2 man of the Philippines Puppet Government. The SolicitorGeneral (Mr Tanada) says that charges would be quickly filed against other members of the Puppet Cabinet.

JAPANESE CRIMINALS. AUSTRALIAN COURT.

CANBERRA, October 3. Japanese war criminals are. to be brought to Australia to face m an Australian Court the Australians whom they maltreated as war prisoners. The Commonwealth is to set up a special Court empowered to try and punish these criminals for offences within Australia and Australian territories. . , . Notice of the Bill which will put into effect this decision was given in the House of Representatives to-day by the Minister of Defence (Mr. Beasley). He said the Bill was lor “the trial and punishment of war criminals.” The special court will not be a permanent body and will sit only when required. The reason for the Bill is to give it jurisdiction over Japanese war criminals. This is to simplify procedure and to ensure that maltreated Australians can identify their tormentors without having to go outside Australia. N.Z. REPRESENTATION. WELLINGTON, October 3. “In view of the small number of war crimes committed by the Japanese against New Zealand citizens, the New Zealand Government has not so far pressed for permanent representation on any judicial authority established to deal with Japanese war criminals,” the Prime Minister (Mi. Fraser) said to-day. “Consideration will, however, be given to the question of New Zealand representation at the trial of persons accused of atrocities against New Zealanders. This would probably take the foim of a New Zealand member of the tribunal, or a New Zealand piosecutor, or both.” CONTROL ENFORCED. (Rec. 11 a.m.) o k TOKIO, October 3. General MacArthur has restricted Japanese overseas financial business communications to messages he apPl He eS warned the Government to keep their hands off Korea. This followed /the purported . promotions ot Japanese officials serving in southern Korea. General MacArthur warned that such purported promotions would be ineffective, as the Allied Military Government was the sole authority in Korea. American officials reported they are checking the activities of more than 100 former secret patriotic societies and other subversive groups. Particular vigilance is maintained lor evidence that these groups might be going underground. The Japanese Government asked General. MacArthur for permission to convert two former naval fuel plants to production of fertiliser. It was explained that farmers were short of 15,000 tons of fertiliser. The reconversion of naval plants would increase the production by 200,000 tons a year. palaceTairfield (Recd. 11.25 a.m.) TOKIO, Oct. 3. The Japanese Government “took the liberty” of asking the American air force to refrain from using the unbombed plaza of the old Imperial Palace at Kyoto for a landing field, says the Associated Press correspondent. An American airman officer signified the intention of requisitioning the ground as an airport.

> AMERICANS SENTENCED, (Recd. noon.) TOKIO, Octo. 3. A court martial sentenced three American sergeants to ten years’ hard labour for the manslaughter of a Japanese shop owner and his son on September 15. The prosecution alleged that the sergeants _ shot the father and son during a drinking bout in the shop. CAPTIVES RELEASED. (Recd. noon.) , ~ , n TOKIO, Oct. 3. General MacArthur’s headquarters reported that all the 30,805 known Allied war prisoners and internees m Japan and Korea have been evacuated. A total of 1390 persons were listed as dead. JAP. FOOD SHORTAGE

(ftecd. 11.45 a.m.) TOKIO. Oct. 3. Japan will soon ask the Allied Command for permission to exchange silk and rayon for food from other nations to meet the current acute shortage, reports the Domei Agency. The Japanese Government has already prepared to allot vessels to carry 70,000 to 75,000 tons of coal monthly from Kyushu to Korea for the railways and asked if it could rec.eive Korean rice and salt m exchange. Villagers in North Japan broke into the Government warehouse and seized rice claiming the ration was insufficient for subsistence. The police made arrests and recovered most of the rice. Thousands of women throughout Japan are sending letters to Higashi Kuni complaining of food shortage. , Japanese newspapers report that Foreign Minister Yoshida might succeed to the Premiership in the event of Higashi Kuni being forced to resign. Yoshida who was in the Gendarmerie, was put in gaol for a month at the beginning of the year, and was free from all suspicion of being a war criminal. Several members of the Diet’s Lower House have resigned because of their part in the responsibility for the war.

HUMAN TORPEDOES (Rec. 10.50 a.m.) TOKIO, Oct. 3. The Japanese used human torpedoes fired from the decks of submarines, in a futile effort to turn the tide of the war, says “Asahi Shimbun.” Large submarines carried six such torpedoes, and each torpedo carried two tons of explosive. They were guided by volunteers. They could . travel for 50 minutes at 25 knots, compared with. 40 knots for the ’ ordinary torpedo. The weapon

was called. “Kaiten,” meaning “Turn to Heaven.” The paper claimed that the torpedoes were successfully used nepr Ulithi against Central Pacific bases, along the New Buinea coast, and Okinawa.

TRUCE IN INDO-CHINA LONDON, October 3. It is officially announced from Kandy (Ceylon) that a cease fire agreement was reached at a meeting between the French authorities in Indo-China and the Annamese independence movement. Reuter’s correspondent says that the cease fire agreement was reached when the situation in Indo-China was deteriorating. A message from Hanoi says that Nguyen Hai Than, leader of a new political party, a union of the revolutionary parties of Vietham, told the Associated Press that his party had been sponsored by the Kuomintang (the Chinese Government) Party for four years. Marshal Chiang Kai-shek had promised support. The Annamese Independence Party controls Langson, Caoband, and Hagiang. QUIET AT SAIGON. (Recd. 1 n.m.) SAIGON, Oct. 3. Major-General Gracey received the Nationalist leaders for a two hour conference. The Nationalist leaders will confer to-morrow with the French authorities. Saigon at present is comparatively quiet. NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES. NO MAJOR INCIDENTS. LONDON, October 3. “Although Java is supposed to be on the verge of a political struggle between the Indonesian nationalists and the Dutch for possession of the Netherlands East Indies. Batavia is probably at the moment one of the quietest of all Far Eastern capitals, says a special representative of . the Associated Press who. has been visiting the archipelago, in a dispatch from Singapore. “Reports of even minor clashes have to be treated with the greatest possible reserve. There is one authentic report of a Japanese sentrv who tried to stop a small outbreak of looting and was torn to nieces, and there are less reliable accounts of beatings up: but the rate of violent deaths is said to be rather lower than the normal pre-war average for the thickly-populated Oriental country. There have been reports of stronger feelings in the middle of Java, and of flag-snatchmg incidents at Semarang and Sourabaya, but none of these, upon investigation, amounts to the dimensions of an ‘incident.’ ” DUTCH DETERMINATION (Recd. 1 p.m.) „ v BATAVIA, Oct. 3. Van Mook arrived at Batavia and conferred for three hours with Christison. The Netherlands information service issued a statement that no consultations were possible with boekarno. The Dutch Government persisted in absolute refusal to treat with persons appointed by the Japanese, and appealed to all Indonesians to continue in the common council for the new status of the empire. The implications of internal leiment caused by the transfer of authority and Indonesians’ claims to independence cannot be grasped m Batavia itself, because the shops are open and Japanese currency is still being used says Reuters correspondent. Batavia trams and walls bear the slogans “freedom from Dutch colonisation.” The correspondent adds that tno Japanese in Batavia to-day were moving into luxury internment camps outside the city they have chosen for themselves. FURTHER DISTURBANCES (Reed. Noon) BATAVIA, Oct. 3. Fifty were killed and 150 wounded in a clash between Japanese troops and Indonesian Nationalists in the Sourabaya area. 4 nn+n Fresh disorders broke out in Batavia last night but the city is now quieter than it has been for some time. A communique issued, by the Allied Command admits “ disttubances in which the commanding onicer of the Seaforth battalion was mobbed, stoned and fired on before the crowd realised he was British.

AUSTRALIAN DEVELOPMENTS SYDNEY, October 3 Sixty-two Indonesian seamen who were fined in a Melbourne Court yesterday for desertion later refused to go back to their ship, the Merak, and were again arrested and charged with Twenty-three Indonesian soldiers at a Dutch camp near Melbourne, who refused to obey orders, have been placed under arrest. Inirty sailors at the St. Kilda naval centre, who went on strike, have also been arrested. The soldiers and sailors will be court-martialled. Wharf labourers in Sydney are remaining firm in their refusal to load In Brisbane, Indonesians last mght stole away from the Trades Hall, where they had been camped When union officials arrived at the hall to day they found that the Indonesians had gone.

DEALINGS WITH SIAMESE. (Rec. 11.45 October 3. Though Siam is still nominally at war with Britain, Siamese troops aic being 'used to take possession of Japanese arms and supply dumps and to guard them, f e P° r l s _ nfrk^l e Times’s correspondent at Bangkok. The new Siamese Government annulled the declaration of war against Britain and the United States, but Britain has not formally acknowledged the annulment. The Siamese are negotiating with SEAC, and it is expected a peace treaty will s °on J 2O evolved. Major-General E\am>, commander of the Allied land forces, meanwhile, is not interfering the Siamese Government, though some of those who declared war against Britain are still in high pl General Evans has two mam tasks, firstly, to disarm and coventrate m selected areas all the 113,000 Japan ese troops in Siam; secondly, to assist the Allied organisation m evacuating war prisoners and interned civihans. Although no large forces of Indian troops have yet penetrated beyond Bangkok, the .concentration of Japanese under their own commanders -in proceeding A limited number ol troops nave been permitted to remain armyd to Sd the dumps. There has been no official surrender ceremony yet, but the officers’ swords will evurtu ally be handed in. ANDAMAN ISLANDS (Recd. Noon) KANDY, Oct. 3. The British occupation fored will take over Andaman Isles Bay of Bengal, this week, reports SEAC. ine mercy ship Bandra has already arm - ed from Calcutta with supplies for 14u ex-prisoners of war in the Aridanians who have been on a starvation diet.