JAPANESE FAKE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 211, 6 August 1945, Page 5

JAPANESE FAKE

ARMS ON HOSPITAL SHIP. MANILA, Aug. 5. General MacArthur’s headquarters announce that a boarding party found arms and fake, patients aboard-a Japanese hospital ship in the Banda Sea. The ship is being brought to an Allied port for investigation. The ship was clearly marked with red crosses on the sides and superstructure, indicating that it carried neither arms nor fighting men. A boarding party from blockading vessels of the Seventh Fleet boarded the ship north of Timor in a routine investigation to ensure that the vessel was operating in conformity with international law and the Geneva Convention. They found contraband, including 23 heavy' machineguns, 15 light machine-guns and ammunition in boxes marked “medical supplies,” as well as an undetermined number of 75 mm. shells. The boarding party promptly began investigating 1500 supposed patients and removed the bandages from some of the men, but found no wounds. The vessel was manned by 13 officers and 63 men.

The Tokio radio denied the State Department's accusation that the Japanese were attempting to protect target areas by placing prisoner-of-war camps nearby. The Domei News Agency, quoting well-informed circles, charged the Americans with indiscriminate bombings and added: "Not a single area of Japan is safe from bombs. Prisoners' camps would eventually become targets even if placed on Mount Fuji's summit. Actually the camp is in a wide open safety zone near a hospital."