AREA WIDENED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25940, 5 September 1945, Page 5

AREA WIDENED

ALLIED OCCUPATION PARATROOPS ON KYUSHU TOKIO, Sept. 3. The Japanese reported that the Americans have begun the occupation of Kyushu, dropping airborne troops on Kanoya airfield, once the base for suicide planes. They also reported the occupation of Chiba city. The Americans have occupied four more airfields near Tokio, also a road junction midway between Atsugi and Tokio, commanding three entrances to the capital. General MacArthur ordered the troops to refrain from disarming the Japanese, who were yielding their arms to their own police. Naval occupation forces were instructed to-day to use a firm hand with the Japanese, but to avoid needless oppression. The instructions indicate an official desire to abolish the holiday tourist attitude displayed by some of the occupation forces. Many Americans ashore are obviously bent on sight-seeing and souvenir shopping, and are welcoming the opportunity to converse with Eng-lish-speaking Japanese. The new instructions direct that the Japanese shall not be allowed to forget they have been defeated and are paying the penalty for aggression and treachery. Property rights will be respected. Looting and acts contrary to tne standards of human decency will not be tolerated. New Political Epoch The Associated Press correspondent in Yokohama says Japan has begun a new political epoch with the militarists’ influence wiped out, and the industrialist politicians resuming the struggle for the power they shared with the militarists until the early 1930’5. Some Japanese newspapermen predict a revival of Communism, which was spreading in the early 1920’s until the militarists and other groups stamped out the trend. The so-called Democrats propose a monarchical system akin to that in Britain, but with the Emperor also the spiritual head. A Home Ministry spokesman broadcast over Tokio radio and explained the meaning of “ weapons ” under the surrender terms. He said swords were close to Japanese souls, but henceforth they would be regarded as objects of ancient art and cutlery. However, the Allies would determine whether hunting rifles and daggers could be considered weapons with swords. Lieutenant-general J. Doolittle flew over Japan for the first time since the famed initial raid of April 18, 1942. General Doolittle, General le May, and Lieutenant-general Nathan Twining, of the Twentieth Air Force, surveyed damage in Tokio and Yokohama from a low altitude. General Twining said the Japanese, unlike the Germans, did not attempt to repair the damage. They seemed stupefied and helpless. Everything in Japan was going to pot. General le May said the Japanese handed over the best motor transport, practically all they had but the cars did not last 24 hours. He added that attacks on oil refineries were so successful that the Japanese had only about one tanker of oil left at the end of the war. Emperor Informs Ancestors

The Domei Agency reported that Emperor Hirohito to-day personally informed his Imperial ancestors of the Japanese defeat. The Emperor, clad in ceremonial robes, worshipped at three sanctuaries in the palace, and was accompanied by the Empress, also the Dowager Empress and Princes Mikasa, Takamatsu, and Higasbikuni, General Umezu, and other high officials. American doctors on the hospital ship Benevolence have found that 25 per cent, of the 1518 liberated prisoners of war so far examined are suffering from tuberculosis, due to malnutrition and poor hygiene. Others are mostly suffering from beriberi, dysentery, anaemia, and extreme malnutrition. Some of the prisoners did not suffer illness but lost weight. The Associated Press correspondent at Yokohama reports that four army teams are questioning prison camp officials and liberated prisoners with a view to listing war criminals. The Americans found a huge quantity of undelivered packages and letters, some looted, in the warehouse district.

General Cunningham, the heroic Wake Island commander, who was released from Peiping prison camp, revealed that the Japanese sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment for his first attempt to escape and a life sentence for a second attempt.