J FORCE LOCATES JAPANESE WAR MATERIAL

Chronicle (Levin), 17 April 1946, Page 2

J FORCE LOCATES JAPANESE WAR MATERIAL

lvUKE, April 11. i'.nt for Ihe atoniic bomb-Japan had su.hieienfe material to wage a loug war. Tliis is proved by war inalerials_ un-k-overed by iiivestigating patrols of the Biitish Commoiiwealth occupation force in the inuuediate vicinity of Kure. JM uch of tliis patrol work is at present beiug done by the X ew Zealand divisioual cavalry regiment. •The InJaud Bea areas were closed to foreigners for inany year.s before the war aiid it is now revealed that vast arsenajs. were established on Eta .liiua and otlver outlyiug islands. . Eta diuia iends it.self . to tlie camouflage of buildings as it is hilly and covered with Jight piue forests. Patrols are locating hundreds of sheds -.011 the island whicli is tuunelled like a rabbit warren. The usual procedure' is ior a patrol to leave by a launch for the area allotted to it and, vvith the assistance of Japancse interpreters, to carry out a thorough search. All the sheds and tunuels loeated are marked on a map and the contents carefully noted. As Kure was a naval base, most of the gcar loeated is naval in character, but there are also po'iSon gas. radios, other eJeetrie equipmeut and thousands of vacuum cleaners although Japanese wars'hips show no evidence of having been clcane'd ili' any sucli modern -man- \