JAPANESE MISLED THE RED CROSS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 302, 22 December 1945, Page 5

JAPANESE MISLED THE RED CROSS

PUT UP FAKtD CANTEENS

EVIDENCE AT TRIAL Recd. 9.15 p.m. Yokohama, Dec. 21. Japanese officers and guards at the Mitsushima prison camp, near Tokio, attempted to mislead representatives of the International Red Cross into a belief that Red Cross supplies were freely distributed to Allied prisoners-of-war by establishing fake canteens, which disappeared half an hour after the representatives’ visit concluded, according to evidence at the trial ot Tatsuo Tsuchiya. The statement was made in an affidavit by LieutenantColonel Allen Cory, a Bataan prisoner,

who was one of those whom Tsuchiya is accused of mishandling. When,a Red Cross representative, who was identified only as “Pestalozzt, ’ visited the camp, the authorities established a canteen, the shelves of which were slocked with Red Cross supplies which had been sent to the prisoners, but which the guards diverted. The Japanese attempted to give the impression that it was regularly open to the British and Americans.

Lieutenant-Colonel Cory’s affidavit said that the prisoners were told before Pestalozzo’s visit: “You must answer all questions favourably to the Japanese,” but, instead, Ihe prisoners tdld him about the bad food, lack ot clothing, improper diet and medical treatment, brutal beatings, filthy living conditions and misappropriation of Red Cross supplies. Pestalozzo told the prisoners it was a regrettable •situation, but*Japan was not a signatory to the Geneva Convention, and the prisoners were treated according to the regulations laid down by the Japanese High Command. Prisoners giving evidence to Pestalozzt subsequently were punished.