State

Volume XIII Number 23 November 3 1945 THE STATE A Weekly Survey of North Carolina Entered n« accoml-class matter, June 1, 1033, at the Poitoffice ut Raleigh, North Carolina, under the Act of March 3. 1870. How the Japs Waged Their Warfare A native* Tar Heel tolls about llic* troatment which flic* Japanese accorded American prisoners, along with sonic* oilier interest¬ ing information relative to warfare in the Pacific. By LT. II. П. W I LK ER SOX, (JSKR Okinawa. Ryukyus Islands, October 16. 1945. Editor Thf. State Magazine Raleigh, North Carolina Dear Sir: 1 am writing this letter because I have no idea how much or how little of this type of information you people back home are getting. 'Maybe you are flooded with similar information. If so. just throw this letter in the waste paper basket. If otherwise, however, and you con¬ sider it ns interesting to read about as it was to see, then you are wel¬ comed to use it as you see fit. Of course, it has not been censored for publication, but is simply the kind of letter that all the boys abroad are writing home to the "home folks.” Bringing Back Prisoners We arc now in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, having just arrived from Nagasaki, Japan i Kyushu Island). This was our second trip, each time bringing back a load of released al¬ lied prisoners of war. Most of them on both trips were Dutch with a sprinkling of French, English, Australians, and Americans. The majority of them (the Dutch) were captured when the Japs invaded Java. We have heard many stories, mostly the kind you read about, concerning the atrocities com¬ mitted by the Japs. One of them THE STATE. November 3. 1945 is the story of a mild mannered boy (Australian! who was in one of the predominantly Dutch camps. All the enlisted men were made to work in the mines. This boy was very cooperative as he and most of the others knew that the only way to escape the beating and pun¬ ishments was to do what the Japs said. When he was relieving the previous shift one night, he used the American slang for saying goodbye, and said "Take it easy" to the new shift. One of the guards overheard him say it, and reported him. He was made to kneel down with a bamboo rod under his knees, through the bend of his legs, and was kept that way for five days. He was allowed to get up for a few minutes the first day, hut be¬ low the knees was so dead that he could hardly stand up. Days after that he could not stand up. After five days he was taken to the American doctor, the senior man in camp, and the doctor, who told me the story, told the Japs the boy had gangrene below the knees. He was taken to the Japanese hos- ital where his legs below the nces were amputated. His pun¬ ishment had been for “inciting men to do less work, and sabotage." The prisoners said no one ever tried to escape in Japan as there would be no place to go. but a few did try it in the Philippines. The ones who were caught, and nearly all of them were, were shot and their bodies were brought back for the other prisoners to see. The doctor said their bodies were so badly mauled and beaten — stabs, eyes gorged out — that he could hardly look. He said he thought and hoped they were beaten like that after they were shot just to impress the other prisoners. The Dutch also told us how the Japs rounded up all the young white girls after the surrender of Java and offered them jobs as "bar¬ maids.” etc. Many had to accept these jobs to keep their families from starving, and many more were forced to accept. Of course, these girls were for one purpose only. The Japs took great delight in getting the white girls for this purpose instead of the Japanese or dark skinned girls. The Dutch combatted this to some degree by providing "professionals" w h о volunteered for this terrible work. It was an impressive sight, especially the first time, when the prisoners came aboard. When the train pulled in to the dock, they were all cheering and yelling. One little British soldier yelled out with a grin. "Hey Navy, where the hell you been the last four years?" In Terrible Condition They were all first taken aboard the hospital ship and examined, cleaned up. given a bath, dcloused. and given new clothes. Many ( Continued on page 19) з