U.S. AIR MID ON JAPAN CAUSED HAVOC

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 174, 25 July 1942, Page 5

U.S. AIR MID ON JAPAN CAUSED HAVOC

POLITICAL CRISIS

600 War Workers Killed In Factory District Res. 1 p.m. LONDON, July 24. American journalists who have arrived at Lourenco Marques, in Portuguese East Africa, from Japan, say that the United States air raid on Tokyo in April killed 600 war workers and created an acute internal political crisis because one raider flew over the Emperor's palace, thus officially endangering the Emperor's life. Two high army officers are reported to have committed hara-kiri as penance and sweeping changes were made in the Defence Command. The raiders concentrated on bombing the factory district, causing heavy damage. The journalists, who are among repatriated nationals, reveal that 780 Japanese technical experts, comprising the entire department of one Mitsui company, were drowned when an American submarine sank the large Japanese merchantman Taiwy Maru off Hongkong early in May. The experts were going south to organise the resources of Japaneseoccupied territory.

Mr. Arthur Fifer, American Red Cross representative, who was repatriated from Hongkong, and is at Lourenco Marques, brought a message from the Colonial Secretary of Hongkong, Mr. F. C. Gimson, who is interned there. Mr. Gimson urgently appealed for complete evacuation of all British and American people from Hongkong. Mr. Fifer said the conditions at Stanley Internment Camp would most likely deteriorate rapidly following the repatriation of Americans. About 2500 civilians interned at Stanley were suffering severely from dietary deficiencies.