Allegation Of Soviet Maltreatment Of Jap War Prisoners

Wanganui Chronicle, 22 December 1950, Page 5

Allegation Of Soviet Maltreatment Of Jap War Prisoners

TOKIO, Dec 20—Mr. William J. Sebald, American delegate on the Allied council for Japan, charged at a council meeting today that the Russian authorities had maltreated and tortured Japanese prisoners of war. He read detailed charges of maltreatment alleged by returned prisoners of war, and listed by the Japanese Government. The allegations said that tortures on prisoners ranged from continual beatings with staves and electric flex, being forced to sit on pieces of wood one inch square, and no food during examinations. They were also confined under rigorous conditions and beaten, had not enough food and no warm clothing in sub-Arctic cold, and had no provision for repatriatkm. Mr Sebald added thaTprisoners were often falsely convicted and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, after which they were cast adrift, with no chance of going home or communicating with their Government. Mr Sebald said that Russia had ignored previous protests about Japanese prisoners of war in Russian hands. The Japanese Government has al-; leged that 330,000 prisoners have not yet been repatriated by the Soviet Union. The Soviet delegates, headed by Major A. P. Kislenko, sat silently while Mr. Sebald made his speech.