BRUTAL JAPANESE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25055, 20 November 1944, Page 6

BRUTAL JAPANESE

PRISONERS' ORDEAL I;.'-" J l-'i _ GRIM FACTS EXPOSED - DEMAND FOE PUNISHMENT Bv Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright Seed. 535 p.m.) LONDON, - "Kevelations regarding the sufferf ings of British and Australian prisoners at the hands of the Japanese in southern areas in the lar East confirm the worst apprehensions aroused by the refusal of the Japanese military authorities to permit an inspection of camps of war prisoners," states the Times. "But for the gallantry of certain United X; States submarine crews, who made * hazardous rescues of survivors from a-torpedoed prison ship, the world would know nothing of the terrible drama enacted in the primeval forest of Burma and Siam. ■'Now that the facts are established the conscience of mankind will bo satisv £ed with nothing less than the punishment of those proved responsible. It is the Japanese army authorities who are : the worst offenders. Their behaviour is " in keeping both with the pride and brutality that seek to inflict the utmost loss of face on Europeans and with the ostentatious lack of interest in the fate of Japanese prisoners in Allied hands. • v They believe the Japanese soldier should tvift or die, not surrender. "In the face of such an attitude there is little that can be done at present to mitigate the lot of Allied prisoners in cajnps under the control of these authorities. However, the Allies can leave no - doubt in the minds of either those regulating the camps or those responsible ' for executing the regulations that they will be held responsible in the strictest fashion human justice can devise."