Police Methods in Japan

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 181, 31 July 1934, Page 7

Police Methods in Japan

Bickerton Describes His Treatment

UNIMAGINABLE BRUTALITY

United Press Association*—By Electria Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, July 29.

Mr. W. Bickertou in an article in the Guardian, describing his experiences in Japan, says, “The inhuman treatment I received is part of tho normal methods of breaking the spirit of a prisoner. I was confined to a cell 12 x 5 feet, in which there were never fewer than nine and often fourteen prisoners. Throe of those were raving mad. I was not allowed baths or cxcrciso during my twenty-four days’ confinement. The brutality of tho guards was unimaginable; they stripped and beat tho prisoners until their backs were a row of weals. Mr. Bickertou describes how, after several days' cross-examination, the dotectives, incensed at his refusal to admit their insinuations, trod on his toes, kicked, smacked and punched him, saying: “It is no use being gentle with this beast.”’ They'‘produced a baseball bat, saving that, it was six years since they had used it and were a bit out of practice. They cracked him on the legs and“ thigh. ' He then declined to answer questions. On the following day they again kicked and punched him to help his memory. Tho treatment was changed after the visit of the British Consul, which made the interrogators uncomfortable, but later, when Bickerton persisted in his refusal to disclose who gave him a copy of a Communist paper, they beat him with a bamboo stick until he collapsed. Later, the detectives worked themselves into a frenzy of rage and grabbed Bickerton by the hair and banged his head against a cupboard. When Bickerton protested to tho Chief of Police, he was told: “Men are not gods. Police-officers are men. When prisoners are obstinate, officers naturally lose their tempers.”