NEW UNDING

Grey River Argus, 5 October 1945, Page 5

NEW UNDING

AMERICANS IN NORTH JAPAN Communists Propose Revolution

(Rec. 11.55.) TOKIO, Oct. 4. The first Americans to land at Haj kodate, on Hokkiaido Island, North Japan, did so to-day. Others will land at Otaru and Sapporo to-mor-row. The Japanese Cottin Spinning Association reported .that Japan, _ as the result of the war has only thirtynine mills compared with 291 in 1937. More than ten million spindles were scrapped during the war, and 56U,Uuu were destroyed by bombs. The remaining plants operated at one-third of capacity turning out 15 to 20,000 bales of yarn monthly. A Domei News Agency reporter visited an infamous Fachu gaol, thirteen miles westward of Tokio. He said hundreds of political prisoners were anxiously awaiting release by the Allies. Tales of horror and brutality were related by Japanese and Korean Communists. Ten thousand Communists were rounded up in 1929. They were beaten with baseball bats, and tortured, but finally, all but twelve hundred were released. Seven Communists were hanged. More than 200 died from beatings, two hundred more died from malnutrition and mistreatment. Communists interviewed, expressed a desire again to participate in political activity. They said Zaibatsu must be stripped ol power. State land must be given to the people. Communists must nd the country of the Emperor system. This could be accomplished only by a revolution. Therefore, blood must flow. F’uchu gaol is guarded only by Japanese. Kyuichi Tokuda, General Secretary of the Communist Party, was gaoled in 1923 for ten months, for disturbing the peace. Pie again was gaoled in 1928 for six years, and sentenced to a further ten years later. Yoshido Shida, editor of a Communist newspaper, was imprisoned in March, 1928. Shito Matamara was sentenced to fifteen years in 1927, the sentence later being changed to life imprisonment, when he was described as a dangerous character. General MacArthur announced that Marshal Yamashita will be tried immediately at Manila by a united States Military Commission as a war criminal. 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 tne Philippines, he failed in his duty as Commander to control the operations of members of his command, permitting them to commit brutal atrocities against peoples of the United States, its Allies and -dependencies, particularly the Philippines, and' he thereby violated the laws ot war. The Commission will be composed of Major-General Russell Reynolds (President), two other MajorGenerals and two Brigadier-Gener-als. The public will be admitted to the trial. Yamashita will be permitted to choose his own counsel it he wishes. A court-martial sentenced three American sergeants to ten years' hard labour for the manslaughter ol a Japanese shop owner and his son on September 15. The prosecution -alleged that the sergeants snot tne father and son during a drinking bout in the shop. General MacArthur’s headquarters reported that all the 30,SUP known Allied war prisosers and internees in Japan and Korea nave been evacuated. A total of 1390 persons were listed as dead. Villagers in North Japan broke into the Government warehouse and seized rice claiming the ration was insufficient for subsistence. The ponce made arrests and recovered most of the rice. Thousands of women throughout Japan ar e sending letters to Prime Minister Higashi Kuni complaining of food shortage. 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 Kyusnu to Korea tor the railways and asked if it could receive Korean rice and salt in exchange.