JAPANESE BRUTALITY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 199, 20 May 1944, Page 7

JAPANESE BRUTALITY

Fate Of Missionaries In New Guinea ißy Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received May 10, 7.50 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 19. An Australian Lutheran missionary was tied to a tree and exposed to the ' weather for a fortnight after his capture by the Japanese at Madang, New Guinea. He was fed only at intervals with mouldy biscuits. This is one of the stories of Japanese brutality told by 92 missionaries rescued by American troops at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea, on April 22. The missionaries have now reached Australia, and are recovering at an American army hospital. Many lost their lives when a 1090-ton enemy ship conveying them to Hollandia was strafed by Allied planes off Wewak. Of 154 kept on deck by the Japanese, all except 25 were killed, died of wounds, or were wounded. 'Sixty died on the ship and 12 died after reaching'Hollandia. An operation performed by a German surgeon, Dr. Theo Braun, saved the life of a Catholic priest, Father Lorenz Mai, whose leg was smashed during an aerial attack, am! turned gangrenous. The amputation was performed with an ordinary handsaw. Unable to obtain from the Japanese more than a quarter of the cocaine required for the anaesthetic, Dr. Braun helped to dull the priest’s pain by giving him -whisky. All the missionaries at Hollandia, including aged (Sisters, were put to work by the Japanese building roads, making shelters, and tending gardens. While the Allied bombers came over they were forced to remain in the open while the Japanese hid in the shelters the missionaries had dug. They were not allowed to keep any of the produce from their gardens. This went to the Japanese garrison. The food for the missionaries was one pound of rioe each a week and a small canister of meat between 100 each clay. “Missionaries are not supposed to steal,” said one of the rescued priests, “but we had some experts.”