TORTURED MERCILESSLY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 31 August 1945, Page 5

TORTURED MERCILESSLY

EIGHT U.S. AIRMEN STILL IN GAOL Shanghai, Aug. 30. Eight American airmen who have been tortured mercilessly by the Japanese, are still held in gaol at Shanghai, says th e Associated Press of America correspondent. Japanese guards attempted to prevent American correspondents from visiting them, although the Japanese Consul gave permission. The guards held rifles with fixed bayonets ready, but finally admitted the correspondents. On e airman, with his wrists tied behind him, had been hung by the thumbs for 30 minutes while the Japanese grilled him as to when the Americans would attempt to land in Japan. All had been brutally beaten and slapped. They suffered almost continuous beatings for 54 days, sometimes beaten with bamboo sticks and metal rods until they wer e black and blue from the neck to the hips at times, after being raised with a cord around their necks. Six survivors of Wake Island also reported that the Japanese beat them “quite a lot.” Shanghai crowds cheered the small party of correspondents and eagerly awaited the city’s release after eight years of Japanese control.

NO PRISONERS KILLED AT HIROSHIMA

'Rec. 11.25 a.m.) London, Aug. 30. The War Offfce states that the Japanese Government informed the Swiss Minister in Tokio that no war orisoners were killed or injured in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.