ENEMY SADISM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21809, 4 September 1945, Page 3

ENEMY SADISM

BATAAN SURVIVORS CRAZED BY THIRST KILLINGS FOR WATER PRISON SHIP CRUELTY (10 a.m.) TOKIO, Sept. 3. Nine American survivors of Bataan and Corregidor told how thirstmaddened prisoners killed one another flghting over drinking water during the long sea voyage from Manila, says the Associated Press correspondent. The Japanese told them that only 3000 survived of the 22,000 prisoners in the Philippines. A sergeant said that he was among 600 men jammed in a hold 40ft. square. They had just enough room to sit with their knees below their heads. For many days no water was issued and crazed men fought for evi fi one drop Eight were killed in flghting over water and 30 others died from different causes. Guards Beat Captives The Formosan guards beat the prisoners continually and also if there was any outbreak of noise. The guu’ds would pull the prisoners to the dec-c and make them kneel for hours on a steel cable which bit into the flesh.

The sergeant said the story of another shipload was t- amous throughout the prison camps. These prisoners were reported to have peep united to one flask of water for three men every two days. Some slashed their wrists and drank their blood Killings in fights over water reached hundreds It is generally believed that 500 survived the journey of 1500. Another sergeant said: ‘They tried to make us beasts.” Red Cross Parcels Looted

The Japanese until recently looted the Red Cross supplies of food at Shinagawa prison camp, said Dr. Gottlieb and Dr. Keschner, of New York, after their release. They described Shinagawa as the worst plague spot of all, yet it was a showplace that was sometimes inspected by generals. The Japanese previously told the prisoners that there were no Red Cross supplies of food, though there were 20,000 boxes in the camp. 11l prisoners were sent to do manual labour for private firms, including Mitsui. Some were given “mochsan” treatment in which burning dried grass was placed -on the lower portions of the body. Two prisoners died from infection of such burns and others were scarred for life. A Japanese army doctor admitted that this wcs done at the order of Colonel Suzuki, commander of all war prisoner camps in the Tokio area. Dr. Gottlieb said that the Japanese practiced tortures which were traceable to strange perversions. One Super-Fortress flier was dragged behind a motor-cycle through the city’s streets, then stripped, tied to a flagpole in the square and subjected to peculiar torments by a semi-nude Japanese woman.