FIVE YEARS’ BOND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22289, 26 March 1947, Page 5

FIVE YEARS’ BOND

FORMER TOKYO BROADCASTS TORTURED BY CAPTORS (11.30 a.m.) LONDON, March 25. Lord Chief Justice Goddard, at the Old Bailey, bound over an Australian, John Joseph Holland, aged 39, for five years on 10 charges of doing acts that were likely to assist the enemy. Holland pleaded guilty. His counsel described the tortures which Holland suffered in gaol after he refused to continue broadcasting for the Japanese in Tokyo during the war. He said that Holland was sent to gaol for 30 months He lost six stone, developed beriberi and was allowed to wear only a shirt and trousers in a temperature which dropped to seven degrees for at least half the year. Holland was put on a fourth grade ration list and had to sit cross-legged on the floor 14 hours daily, winding pieces of string into balls. The guards threw water over him and made him stand for hours at a time, and flogged him until he lost consciousness. The prosecuting counsel said that Holland was in the Japanese broadcasting service for four months. Fie took part in propaganda designed to create ill-will between Australia and Britain and between Britain and America. Holland quarrelled with the Japanese, who sentenced him to three years imprisonment, apparently for trying to

disturb the Japanese people’s morale. The Japanese released him in September, 1945, and the Americans rearrested him.

The defence counsel said that Holland honestly believed the Australian position was hopeless and that the Empire was crumbling: He tried to persuade the Australians to save themselves. Lord Justice Goddard, in binding Holland over, said that Holland had caused his own downfall by_ lending himself to the Japanese. His vanity made him think he could influence Australia’s policy.