INVASION OF N.Z.

Chronicle (Levin), 6 November 1946, Page 7

INVASION OF N.Z.

(Official Correspondent.) '

Japan Had No Plans

TOKIO, Nov. 1. Hideki Tojo, Japan 7s Premier and War Minister from 1941 to 1944, strongly denied today that pians for a Japanese invasion of New Zealand ever existed. ... . «• , - • • Tojo, one of the 27 alleged Japanese war • crimiuals under trial by the Far Last International Military Tribunal, riiade this denial. in answer to questions put to him by a New Zealand journalist visiting Tokio. The questions were asked because,- after - 10 days of evidence on Japan 7s preparations for war, uothing had been put before the tribunal to show that an invasion of New Zealand was included in the Japanese plan of operations in the . fSouth Paeific. The only refence to the Japanese fcLigh Comraand's -intentions for New Zealand vas made in detailed Allied intelligence information read to the tribunal by American counsel 'during the closing stages of the phase of the prosecution presented by the New Zealander, Brigadier R. H. Quilliam. This docunient said that, at the time of Pearl Harbour, the. euemy was carrying. into eft'ect pin-pointed plans conceived months in adyance and cloaked in secrecy. Until recently little had been known of the planning before the raid on Hawaii. The flrst conci'ete intimations of early eneiny intentions in the Pacilic had come from a captured Japanese, who had worked ' closely with toj)ranking officers of'the Japanese navy, and who had access to the liighly confidential document. This Japanese had said that the Iligh Coinmand had concentrated on two maia operations— a successful raid on Pearl Harbour and a completely worked out scliedule for occupying Malaya, Burma, thc Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, the Bqlomous aud the Contral Pacilic Islauds. Noitlicr Australia hor New Zealand had apparcntly beeu considered as im- , mediate objectives, the statement continued. The Japanese- inlended simplv to cut the two countries ull from outside help. Asked eitlier to coniirm or contradict tliis intelligence appreciation, Tojo at flrst refused to say anytliing. liccently he has refused almost ,every correspondeut 7s request to answer questions outside the tribunal scssious., Approaclied agaiu latcr through liis seuior Japanese counsel, Dr. lcliido Jvose, Tojo agreed, howevcr, to consider h short questionnai're on the subject. ' ' The only question he would answer was this: "Did the over-all Japanese plan of operation ixi the South Paciiic include any detailed plan of offensivc action against New Zealand?77 Tojo7s reply was: "We had no intention to invade New Zealand at any time. ' ' Asked whether, if, such a plan did not exist, it was inteii'ded only to deprive Australia and New- Zealand of outside assistance, Tojo . areplied: *V'In the Japanese organisation, stfategy comes soley under the jurisdiction vof the Navai Uiuet of fc>tatt. l cannot say anything about it.77 \ : One pf the puestlons lie ;refuse'd lo answer waS whether Japanese aircrht't a'nd.submarines seen olf the New Zealand coast :in '1942 Miad •ihad.e prepajfatory reconnaissance- for an offensive landing. Another query lie said he eould not answer was on wliat use the Japanese intended to make of the islands north of New Zealand if their southward

drive through the Solomons had not been halted in 1942. Throughout Brigadier 9 Quilliam *s stage of the prosecution, which has dealt with the economie aud military and naval preparations for the whr, Tojo has sat impassively at his front i'Ow bench listening to the* evidence and occasionallv making notes and turning over papers.- He looks more than his 62 years. Unlike some of the other 26 aceused, lie never smiles and seldom speaks even during his meals. The official correspondent eovering the Far Eastern War Crimmal trials for the New Zealand Press is Captain B. L. Hewitt, of Christchurch, who is Public- Itelations Officers with the New Zealand Force in Japan. and who was an official correspondent in the Middie East and Italy during tlie war.