NATIVES AS SHIELDS
ENEMY TACTICS ON KWAJALEIN NEW YORK, Feb. 10. The Japanese used natives as shields in a last desperate attempt to hold off the invaders on Kwajalein Island, says a United Press correspondent. This was disclosed by American doctors who treated nearly 50 native casualties, most of whom told interpreters that they were wounded as the Japanese held them in fox-holes and dug-outs. Lieutenant-colonel Ball said that apparently the Japanese saw that the first waves of American soldiers were reluctant to shoot the natives, and so they grabbed the nearest and literally hung on for dear life. He added that some of the natives were forced to remain in fox-holes for several hours. Their presence was one reason for the unusually large number of Japanese taken prisoner. According to the natives the Japanese discouraged Christianity in the Marshalls, boasting that “Christ had been banished from the Marshalls.’' Over 80 per cent, of the natives..however. profess Christianity.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 25458, 12 February 1944, Page 5
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158NATIVES AS SHIELDS Otago Daily Times, Issue 25458, 12 February 1944, Page 5
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