JAPAN DENOUNCED

Grey River Argus, 2 February 1944, Page 5

JAPAN DENOUNCED

Maltreatment of Prisoners U.S.A. WARNINGS. [Aust. & N.Z. Press Assn.] (Rec. 9.50) WASHINGTON, Jan. 31. The State Department has announced that it protested repeatedly to Tokio against various instances ot mistreatment of American internees and prisoners contrary! to a Japanese promise to abide by the Geneva Convention. The last protest was despatched on January 27 through Swiss channels, and it particularly protested against the punishment ,of American nationals merely for complaining about the conditions of captivity. Another of almost one hundred protests was launched over the execution of American fliers participating in the Doolittle raid on Tokio. The Japanese Government was warned that its officers responsible for their execution will be held accountable by the United States, and will get nunishment which they deserve for their uncivilised inhuman acts. The State Department also disclosed that tons of food, medicine and clothing intended for American prisoners of war had been piled .up for over a month at Vladivostock because Japan had refused to guarantee delivery of the material to prisoners. M.QRE ALLEGATIONS. [Aus. & N.Z. Press Assn.] (Rec. 5.5) LONDON, Jan. 31. The Delhi correspondent of “The Times” says that Allied'statements on Japanese atrocities met general approval throughout India. The mind recoils from the detailed recital of the barbarity to which British, American, Chinese, and Indian soldiers and civilians are subjected in Burma. The vivisection of prisoners seems to be a regular part of Japanese savagery. An Indian officer was dissected alive for the amusement of a Japanese officers’ mess. The same fate befell three American airmen forced down in Burma. An American officer who escaped from the S'outh-west Pacific told of Japanese guards carrying the head of one of his friends around a camp on a bamboo, pole. Of three hundred men taken nrisoner at Yanangyuam oilfields only 115 survived . the short journey to Rangoon. Forty . were tied up in a small room for . three days without food and water. L One who asked for water was shot. . Then the others with hands tied be- . hind their backs were taken to a ’ river and made to drink like animals. r An American regiment after suffering only twenty-five casualties in battle, i lost three thousand men in prison . camp as a result of five months’ t brutality and starvation. British f and Allied prisoners in Hong Kong x iwere forced to squat cross-legged for . 1 fourteen hours daily and not. allowed Ito lean against the walls, stretch their ’ legs or talk. An escapee stated that .it was ofen impossible to sleep for z the screams of prisoners undergoing ? torture. Prisoners recaptured after an attempt to escape were staked j to the ground and covered wih sugar to attract ants. Nevertheless many f British. Indians, and Americans escaped especially from forward areas to relate hideous experiences. 1 WASHINGTON. Jan 31.

Deploring a tendency in Washington to excuse Emperor Hirohito from blame for atrocities, Senator T. Connally, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committe, stressed that not only militarists but also the Emperor and people of Japan were responsible for the savagery. Fie said: “We cannot discriminate among internal grouns. Our sword is drawn and everyone from the Emperor, downwards shall feel its edge.