VILE MURDER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1943, Page 3

VILE MURDER

JAPANESE EXECUTION OF AMERICAN AIRMEN DENOUNCED BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. PROMISE OF INEXORABLE RETRIBUTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) WASHINGTON, April 22, The White House yesterday announced that President Roosevelt had revealed, “with a feeling of deepest sorrow, the barbarous execution by the Japanese Government of some members of this country’s armed forces who fell into Japanese hands following upon the raid on Tokio.”

The Chief of the United States Air Staff, General Arnold, has ordered all American airmen to avenge their comrades. He has sent the following message to every army unit at home and abroad:

“In violation to every rule of military procedure and every concept of human decency, the Japanese have executed several of our brave comrades who took part in the first Tokio raid. These men are heroes, and we must not forget. We must redouble our efforts till the inhuman war lords who committed the crime are completely destroyed. “Remember those comrades when you get a Zero in your sights. Have their ’sacrifice before you when you line up your bomb-sights on a Japanese base. Let your answer to the treatment of your comrades be the destruction of the Japanese Air Force, their lines of communication and the production centres which enable them to continue such atrocities.”

FALSE CHARGES DENIED. The State Department flatly denies Japanese allegations that the airmen inentionally bombed non-military installations and fired on civilians and that the airmen admitted having done so. A Note which has been issued by the State Department discloses that Japan admitted that all the captured crews were sentenced to death. The sentences was commuted for the larger number, but certain of the accused were executed. The United States was subsequently informed that Japan refused to treat the remaining aviators as prisoners of war, or to divulge their names and sentences or permit the Swiss Minister to visit them.

Branding the Japanese charges against the airmen as false, the Note points out there have been numerous instances where the Japanese have employed brutal and bestial methods in extorting alleged confessions for use against their victims. The note recalls Japan’s solemn undertaking to observe the Geneva War Prisoners Convention, and it again calls on Jpaan to carry out the agreement. It concludes: “The United States Government warns Japan that, for any other violations of its undertakings as regards war prisoners and also for any other acts of crimilal barbarity inflicted on American prisoners in violation of the rules of warfare, as the military operations draw to the inexorable, inevitable conclusion the American Government will visit upon the officers who are responsible the punishment they deserve.’ The Director of the Office of War Information, Mr Elmer Davis, said, “Civilians will be held responsible for the executions as well as officers, but not the Emperor, who has nothing to say about what goes on in Japan.” The Under-Secretary for War, Mr Robert Paterson, said that the United States would not undertake reprisals against Japanese prisoners in American hands. He added, “We have faithfully lived up to our commitments under the articles of the Geneva convention, and reprisals against Japanese soldiers would lower us to the level of our enemies without even touching the individuals responsible. We shall have reprisals, but they will be against the officials of the Japanese Government who instigated the crimes.”

ASIGNED TARGETS BOMBED ,

Denials that the pilots taking part in the Tokio raid attacked civilian targets have been made by airmen who participated. “Major-General Doolittle told us to bomb only the assigned targets,” said Captains Ted Lawson and Harold Watson. ‘“We could have bombed an aircraftcarrier in Tokio harbour and a Japanese airport with planes lined up on the field, but we all had specific instructions, which were strictly observed.”

Mr Max Hill, former chief of the Tokio bureau of the Associated Press, who was in Tokio at the time of the raid, said that a Japanese friend told him that many people were killed by machinegun bullets from Japanese planes. These were shooting at the American bombers, but their bullets sprayed a school yard.

Mr Roosevelt’s announcement of the execution of the Americans was received from Corpus Christi, Texas, when the President’s train arrived. Mr Roosevelt said that on October 19 the Government learned from the Japanese radio of the capture, trial, and severe punishment of the American flyers. An endeavour was made to obtain confirmation, but not till March 12 did the Government receive a communication given by the Japanese Government, stating that the Americans had in fact been tried and the death penalty pronounced.

In its account last Tuesday of the bombing of Tokio 12 months ago, the United States War Department stated that 64 of the 80 personnel returned to America, five were interned in Russia, eight were presumed prisoners in Japan, two were missing and one was killed. NATION STIRRED INTENSIFICATION OF WAR DEMANDED. MORE AID FOR MACARTHUR. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NEW YORK, April 22. The American people have been stirred to even greater hatred of Japan by this revelation. Members of Congress are urging intensification of the war in the Pacific, and Americans are demanding that General MacArthur should be given every aid immediately to revenge the execution of the captured American flyers. Thousands are volunteering for further

raids on Tokio, a demand for which is sweeping the country. Congressmen denounced the Japanese as “savages” and “dirty rats.” Mr Hamilton Fish urged immediate reprisals against Japanese prisoners, but others advised against this.

Representative Clare Luce said that the Americans were so outraged it might even change the course of the war in the Pacific. “We must bomb Japan out of the war; however, we must not retaliate in kind, since it would unloose a reign of terror,” "she said. Senator Bushfield said he hoped General MacArthur would be given sufficient material, now, and more than just to hold on in the Pacific.

Commenting on the murder of the American flyers, the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Mackenzie King, said that Canadians were distressed and horrified at the barbarous act, “which brings home to us all the grim, bitter nature of the struggle in which we are engaged.” Madam Chiang Kai-shek commented that the atrocities should steel the United Nations’ determination to .bring the enemy immediately to task.

BLUSTER IN TOKIO REPLY TO THE AMERICAN INDICTMENT. NEW YORK, April 22. The Tokio radio declared that President Roosevelt's accusation could not be taken seriously. I “He jis simply trying to ward off a storm of criticism. Japan was justified in severely punishing the United States airmen, who were guilty of attacking .'civilian objectives,” it said. In another broadcast, the radio stated: “The American leaders, as ever, are loudly clamouring for air raids on Japan as the only way to defeat Japan. The Americans seem to have the one-sided illusion that only American planes are capable of carrying out long-range bombing. Remember, two can play that game. You raid us. and we raid you. Americans, by the way: Don’t forget to make sure that every flyer that comes over here has a special pass to hell, and the rest is assured. It’s strictly a one-way ticket.” Within a few hours of the revelation of the executions, the Japanese-controlled Batavia radio appealed for fairer treatment of the Japanese prisoners in Allied hands.