AMERICA ROUSED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25208, 24 April 1943, Page 5

AMERICA ROUSED

GREATER FIGHTING PITCH DEMAND FOR OFFENSIVE (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Apl. 23. The American people have been stirred to even greater hatred of Japan by the revelation that the Japanese executed several of the American airmen who raided Tokio last year. Members of Congress are urging an intensification of the Pacific war. The Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull, flatly denies- the Japanese allegations that the airmen intentionally bombed non-military installations and fired on civilians and that the airmen admitted having done so. The State Department Note discloses that Japan admitted that all the captured crews were sentenced to death, but that the sentence was commuted for the larger number, and that certain of the accused were executed. The United States was subsequently informed that Japan refused to treat the remaining aviators as war prisoners or divulge the names and sentences, or permit the Swiss Minister to visit them. Alleged Confessions Branding as false the charges that the airmen bombed non-military installations and fired on civilians and admitted these acts, the Note points out that there were numerous instances where the Japanese employed brutal and bestial methods in extorting alleged confessions for use against their , victims. The Note recalls Japan’s solemn undertaking to observe the Geneva War Prisoners’ Convention and again calls on Japan to carry out the agreement. The Note concludes: “The United States Government warns Japan that for any other violations of its undertakings concerning war prisoners and also for any other acts of criminal barbarity inflicted on American prisoners in violation of the rules of warfare, as the military operations draw to an inexorable and inevitable conclusion, the American Government will visit upon the officers responsible the punishment they deserve.” , Americans are demanding that General MacAYthur be given every aid immediately to revenge the execution of the American flyers. The New York Daily News says the executions have again thrown the spotlight on the trickle of aid now being sent to the Southern Pacific. “General MacArthur has insufficient planes and is undermanned, and the entire war in the Pacific has been deplorably underrated.” The paper adds that the European and Pacific wars are of equal importance, and more supplies must be sent to General MacArthur immediately. The news, which has evoked the deepest horror, coupled with a new realisation of the type of enemy being fought, is expected to arouse the American people to a greater fighting pitch. A typical reaction is the comment made by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr S. Rayburn. “It is so gruesome,” he said, “ that it defies comment,” "While no decision should be dictated by anger, the executions may revise our war strategy,” said Mr A. B. Chandler, chairman of the Senate Military Affqirs Committee. “ Protests and warnings to Tokio are futile. The only answer is to send more planes to General MacArthur."

“The American people will never forget this utterly barbarous act,” said Mr Joseph Grew, former American Ambassador to Japan “If the Japanese military leaders believe that suen acts will intimidate us, they will learn that their frightfulness has precisely the reverse effect. We must all work harder to cut out the. cancer of Japanese militarism.” “ United States military observers believe that this murder in cold blood of American flyers has added explosive fuel to the controversy over Pacific strategy,” writes the Washington correspondent of the Associated Press of America. “ They foresee not only a rising tide of public anger, but sharpened demands for expedited offensive action against the Japanese." Wave of Public Demands Officials are not willing to predict whether the tidal wave of public demands will lead to any further revision of military priorities in favour of the Pacific theatre, but they freely admit that the fate of the American flyers has created an important new psychological factor in the Pacific situation. Pressure for adequate striking power to be directed against Japan is expected to become especially strong after the conclusion of the Tunisian campaign.

Denials that the pilots, taking part in the Tokio raid attacked civilian targets are made by the airmen who participated. “ Brigadier-gene-ai little told us to bomb only assigned targets,” said Captains Ted Lawson and Harold Watson. “We could have bombed a carrier in Tokio Harbour and a Japanese airport with planes lined up on the field, but we all had specific instructions, which we strictly observed.”

Mr Max Hill, former chief of the Tokio Bureau of the American Associated Press, who was in Tokio at the time of the raid, said a Japanese friend tod him that many people were killed by machine-gun bullets from planes. These were shooting .al ih* American bombers, but their Duueis sprayed a school playground. The United States Under-secretary of War, Mr R. P. Patterson, said the United States would not undertake reprisals against the Japanese prisoners in American hands for the execution of the American flyers. He adoed: “We have faithfully lived up to our commitments under the articles of the Geneva Convention. Reprisals against Japanese soldiers would lower us to the level of our enemies without even touching the individuals responsible. We shall have reprisals, but they will be against ' ca - - • the Japanese Government who inStt' gated the crimes.”