BARBAROUS ACT

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

BARBAROUS ACT

JAPAN’S CRIME WAR PRISONERS EXECUTED CAPTURED IN TOKIQ RAID (Rec, 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Apl. 21. President Roosevelt to-day issued a statement that the Japanese had executed several captured American flyers who participated in the Tokio raid. "This recourse by our enemies to frightfulness,” the President said, “is barbarous. The United States will hold personally and officially responsible for these diabolical crimes all those officers of the Japanese Government who have participated in them, and in due course will bring those officers to justice.” The President added that on October 19 the Government had learned from the Japanese radio of the capture, trial, and severe punishment of the American flyers. The Government had made continuous efforts to obtain confirmation, but it was not until March 12 that it had received a communication given by, the Japanese Government stating that the Americans, in fact, had been tried and the death penalty pronounced. President Roosevelt’s statement was accompanied by the text of the State Department’s protest, sent to the Japanese Government on April 12 through the Swiss Minister at Tokio. President Roosevelt added: “This attempt of the Japanese war lords to intimidate us will utterly fail. It will make the American people more determined than ever to blot out the shameless militarism of Japan.” A White House statement on the execution of the airmen said the death penalty had been commuted for some, but had been applied to others. The United States Note to the Japanese Government branded as false the Japanese claim that the United States aviators admitted that they had intentionally bombed non-military installations and deliberately fired on civilians. The Note recalled that there were instances where Japanese agencies were known to have extorted confessions from persons in their power. Volunteers for Further Raids

A message from Washington says that thousands are volunteering for further raids on Tokio. The demand for this is sweeping the country with a wave of intense anger. General Henry Arnold, commander of the United States Army Air Force, sent the following message to every army unit at home and abroad: In violation of every rule of military procedure and every concept of human decency, the Japanese executed several of our brave comrades who took part in the first Tokio raid. These men are heroes, and we must not forget; we must redouble our efforts until the inhuman war lords who committed the crime are completely destroyed. Remember those comrades when you get a Zero in your sights and have their sacrifice before you when you line up the bombsights on a Japanese base.” General Arnold continued: “Let your answer to the treatment of your comrades be the destruction of the Japanese Air Force, their lines of communication, and their production centres which enable them to continue such atrocities.” / The Director of the Office of War Information, Mr Elmer Davis, said that civilians will be held responsible for the executions, as well as the officers, but not the Emperor, who has nothing to say about what goes on in Japan. Congressmen denounced the Japanese as “savages and dirty rats.” Mr Hamilton Fish urged immediate .reprisals against Japanese prisoners, but others advised against this. Senator J. Bushfield said: “I hope we will give General MacArthur sufficient material now, more than just to hold on in the Pacific.” Canadians Horrified

The Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Mackenzie King, said: “ Canadians are distressed and horrified by the barbarous act, which brings home to us all the grim and bitter nature of the struggle in which we are engaged.” Madame Chiang Kai-shek commented: “The aitrocities should steel the United Nations’ determination to bring the enemy immediately to task." Under the heading “Savages of Tokio,” the New York Times, in an editorial, says: “ The Japanese, by this brutal act. will not succeed in protecting their islands from air and land invasion, to which they are increasingly exposed. We shall carry the attack in force to every military and industrial objective in Japan before the war is finished.”

The New York Herald-Tribune raises the question whether the Tokio raid was worthwhile. It admits that it was magnificent, but, like the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, it was not exactly war. It adds: “The European bombing has proved that a few scattered bombs have only a negligible effect on the enemy’s war potential and -is likely to increase rather than decrease the morale of the people. The raid turned out too badly to be repeated. We sacrificed 16 planes and a number of lives, and gravely jeopardised a carrier, and diverted much time and energy from more practical forms of waging war in order to achieve only a brilliant stunt.”

The Tokio radio declared that President Roosevelt’s accusations could not be taken seriously. “He is simply trying to ward off a storm of criticism. Japan is justified in severely punishing United States airmen guilty of attacking civilian objectives.”

In another broadcast the Tokio radio said: “The American leaders, as ever, are loudly clamouring for air raids in Japan as the only way to defeat Japan. The Americans seem to have the onesided illusion that only American fjlanes are capable of carrying out ong-range bombing. Remember that two can play the game. You raid us and we raid you. Americans, by the way, do not forget to make sure that every flyer that comes over here has a special pass to hell, and rest assured that it’s a strictly one-way ticket.” Within a few hours of the revelation of the executions the Japanese-con-trolled Batavia radio appealed for fairer treatment of Japanese prisoners in Allied hands.