OCCUPYING JAPAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25301, 7 September 1945, Page 7

OCCUPYING JAPAN

AMERICANS PREPARE GREAT FORCE NEEDED IiIIiEHATINii PRISONERS (Hi-i'il, I 1.10 p.m.) TOKYO, Sept. 0 (Jeneral MacArfhtir is expected to transfer his headquarters to the American Embassy in Tokyo soon after the occupation on (Saturday. Lieutenant - General Eichelberger, commander of the United States Eighth Army, estimated that be-* tween .'300,000 and 400,000 troops would be required to start with for j the occupation. He added that all Japanese troops would be disarmed by October 10. The people of Tokyo have been given their orders for Saturday. Among other things, they must show proper respect | to the Allied soldiers and stay indoors from sundown to dawn. Vice-Admiral F. J. Fletcher, aboard the Panamint, is waiting at the head of a large naval force to occupy Northern Honshu, reports an Associated Press correspondent. Japanese representatives will board the Panamint to receive instructions for the handing over of the Ominato naval base. One of the first tasks of the occupation forces will be the liberation of thousands of prisoners in the many camps north of Ominato. The influential newspaper Asahi said the hitter struggle between the Army and the Navy, also disputes among militarists in the Cabinet regarding control of the country, were instrumental in causing Japan's defeat. This is the first time for a decade that anyJapanese newspaper has dared to report what has lone been known to be a fact. The Asahi added that remnants of feudal society based on the policy "Let the people obey, hut do not let them know" existed until today and prevented the full use of the nation's strength. The Army and Navy fought over materials and labour and heavily patronised the black markets in a race to equip their own services. As a result munitions production and power was halved. Even the Diet often did not know whether to take orders from the Cabinet or from the militarists who stood behind it. The Japanese Diet ended its session this morning. JAPANESE LOSSES 467,000 MEN KILLED CASUALTIES FOR WAR (TCrrd. 12.15 a.m.) TOKYO, Sept. fi Reporting to the Diet a Japanese Government spokesman said Japan's Army and Navy casualties' totalled about 5,085,000. Japan began the war with an army of about 1,900,000 and ended it with 5,500,000. The casualty figures for the Army were:—Killed, .'110,000; wounded. 146.000; sick, 4,470,000. Of the sick 40.000 died. Figures for the Navy were:—Killed. ! 157,365; died of sickness, 1430; missing. 1483. No figures were given of the wounded. The Navy dead included 2005 members of the special attack corps. The spokesman added that about 65 per cent of the Army dead preferred death to dishonour. The Associated Press comments that this suggests that they took their own lives. RESCUERS FOR TIMOR DAT?WIN. S.'.pt. n A force of Australian troops has embarked from Darwin to rescue 148 Australian prisoners of war in Dutch Timor. The prisoners are the survivors of an A.I.F. battalion which was overwhelmed by the Japanese near Koepang in February, 1942. Among them may be a few or the A.I.F. commandos who fought on in Timor ten months after the Japanese invasion of the island. The Australian occupation force will take the surrender of about 6000 Japanese on Timor.