MUTILATIONS BY JAPANESE.

Chronicle (Levin), 4 January 1947, Page 5

MUTILATIONS BY JAPANESE.

Received Friday, 7 p.m. TOKIO, Jan. 2. The War Crimes Tribunal heard further grisly testimonv about mutilations and beheadings by afiidavits today. Major Charles Henry "Bicks, of Melbourne, said he foimd the bodies of six Australians at Milne Bay, in August, 1942. Their hands were tied behind their baeks and all had been bayonetted through the stomach. A former militia captain, Charles Walter Kendall, of Brisbane, said that lie found the bodies of two Australians 50 yards from the Japanese headquarters at Milue Bay in September, 1942, both bayonetted. One had the ears cut olf and was otlienvise mutilated. Another war prisoner atfida\'it described the execution of seven Australians, including a bov aged seven, and four Avomen, near Buna in August, 1942. They were led. to a grave, shot, and dumped in by orders of a Japan ese oflieer. The Court studied tAvo photographs taken by a Japanese soldier showing the beheading of an Australian and two Ambonese near Aitape, in Beptember, i 1943. Testimony was also presented show- 1

ing that four Europeans, including a Catholic priest, were execnted al Tarawa, and 12 Europeans were execnted on Nauru and Ocean Islands. The Australian prosecutor, Lieut. Colonel T. J. Mornane, submitted documents shoAvi ng that Japanese troops took a particular deligbt in mutilating Allied captiATes, both male and female, bayonets and swords being the most favoured instruments of torture. Lieut. Colonel Mornane said that during their retreat in New Guinea in 194:5 the Jap anese left behind mutilated bodies of Allied persons as a warning to the ad , vancing troops. Most of the victims had' been stripped and their bodies tied to stakes. Evidence showed thfit fear of defeat and surrender prompted Japanese otSeers to order tortures, and that thereafter officers told the troops that th$y couid never surrender l)eeause the Allies would retaliate- against them i tvith similar atroeities. ;