JAPANESE RUTHLESSNESS

Evening Star, Issue 24332, 22 October 1942, Page 5

JAPANESE RUTHLESSNESS

APING NAZI METHODS RECRUITING FOREIGN LABOUR LONDON, October 20. _ The German press-gang methods in recruiting foreign labour are being followed with equal ruthlessness by the Japanese. A puppet labour association. according to information available' here, has set 2,000,000 persons as the goal for this year’s labour conscription in North China. One million and a-half of those will bo sent to Manchuria, 15,000 to Inner Mongolia, 100,000 to Japan, and the rest will work in North China. * During the past five years the Japanese have, in fact, collected 5,000,000 Chinese labourers in North China and sent them to one of the provinces or Japan. Farly last February Japanese troops arrested more than 10,000 able-bodied men in South-east Shansi, and later carried them away in trucks to unknown places. The Japanese have several methods of getting labourers in North China. One is to arrest any person considered “ suspicious,” and another to burn down village after village, and the people from such areas are herded together into work gangs.

A BASE WEAPON JAPANESE TRICKS IN BATAAN NEW YORK, October 20. How the Japanese used sex as_ a weapon during the Bataan campaign was described by Colonel Carlos llomulo, of the Philippine army. Interviewed by ‘ P.M.,’ Colonel llomulo, who was aide-de-camp to General MacArthur, and the last man to leave Bataan, is here on a lecture tour. 11 One of the many tricks the Japanese used in attempting to break the morale of the Bataan defenders,” -he said, “ was the dropping of handsomelylithographed pictures of nude women over the front lines. Our soldiers had been lying in ‘ foxholes ’ for months, living on a handful of rice a day, and suffering terrible hardships in the jungle war, and the pictures would be captioned: ‘ Why go on suffering? Why not enjoy the pleasures of life? Come to us. You are our brothers.’ Their leaflets always emphasised the colour line, and always pleaded -with Philippine soldiers to join their Oriental brothers in fighting the white race. “In addition, big loud-speakers turned towards the American troops broadcast English* programmes from the Japanese-controlled Manila station. They were subtly designed to breed discontent.”

EGYPTIAN FRONT WIDESPREAD ALLIED AIR RAIDS LONDON. October 21. Allied aircraft were out in force over the Egyptian battle area, to-day. The main attack was against forward enemy landing grounds, .where fires were started and aircraft on tho ground destroyed. Enemy aircraft were kept on' the defensive, and 11 fighters were shot down. On the coast road' transport was raked with fire, and medium and light bombers again raided Tobruk. Torpedo-carrying planes and bombers attacked shipping off Lampedusa Island, midway between Malta and the coast of Tunisia. A tanker and a merchant ship were hit, and a heavy bomb exploded on another vessel. Twelve Allied aircraft are missing as a result of these operations, but the pilots of at least two are safe.

BUND LEADERS CONVICTED NEW YORK, October 20. Twenty-four leaders of the GermanAmerican .Bund, including the national fuhrer, Gerhard Kunzo, were convicted in the Federal Court after a month’s trial on a charge of counselling members to evade military service. One leader was acquitted. Conviction carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a 10,000dol fine.

GIBRALTAR HAS AIR RAID WARNING LONDON, October 21. Gibraltar had an air raid warning to-day, Italian planes dropped bombs on Spanish territory, causing a few civilian casualties and some damage. JAPANESE THREATS TO U.S. AIRMEN LONDON, October 21. The Tokio radio has changed its ground in regard to the threat to punish American airmen who bombed Japanese cities some months ago. A Press spokesman said to-day that the American airmen who were alleged to have been captured after the raid had already been severely punished. He declined to say what this meant, but added that the death penalty could have been included.