The first of two exchange vessels bearing Japanese repatriates from England, India, Burma, Malaya and Singapore returned to Japan on September 27, bringing back actual eye-witness accounts of the wanton cruelties and
gross mistreatment our nationals have been subjected to at the hands of the British authorities since the outbreak of war.
The reports of the terrifying experiences of all the repatriates have not yet been completely assembled as the second exchange vessel is still en route home, but those already on hand are far more than sufficient to describe the repulsive and excessive measures resorted to by the British authorities apparently on instructions from the home government, in the handling of our nationals, not only those of non-official status but even those of official status as well as women and children.
Here are a few typical cases taken from many scores of actual experiences recounted by our returned nationals:
1. At the walled Purana Qilla Internment Camp near New Delhi, the British authorities violated the most elemental rules of humanity by perpetrating acts of cruelty which our repatriates declared that they could relate only with a deep shudder and unforgettable bitterness. Three thousand of our nationals—about 2,000 men and 1,000 women and children—were herded like cattle into this camp from Calcutta, Bombay, Karachi, Rangoon, Malaya and Singapore and jammed into about 400 dilapidated tents set up directly on the ground and exposed to wind and rain, especially during the rainy season when the conditions were indescribably unbearable.
Those from the Malay and Singapore regions had been brought dressed as they were on the day of their arrest, which immediately followed the outbreak of hostilities, in tropical clothes and with hardly any change of clothing. Women with infants and tiny tots, of whom there were over a hundred, were brought with only a few spare diapers and whatever else in the way of baby's needs they could carry in a small bundle. Except for the thin cotton blankets which they were provided they had no protection against the chilly nights when the temperature descended as low as two degrees above freezing point. Firewood was scarce, for the three pounds per each cooking unit which was provided were insufficient even for cooking purposes alone.
Food was not only insufficient—only about a half a dozen carrots being rationed to 600 persons, to cite an example—but also was frequently stale and at times contained worms. The rice which they were supplied with consisted of one-third sand.
Sicknesses occurred day after day and soon became widespread but there were no drugs or medical facilities. The doctor assigned to the camp offered no medical attention with the excuse that he was without medical supplies.
As a result, seventy deaths occurred in this camp. Each death, which occurred in an unsanitary makeshift hospital where patients were taken only when in the most critical condition, was reported a day or two later and when the bodies were brought at the request of the internees they were often in a partially decomposed and offensively smelling state after having been used as cadaver and dissected and mutilated by the doctor who refused to explain the cause of the deaths. Vigil was kept by the friends of the deceased in the most desolate atmopshere and went on almost every night after the
sicknesses and deaths became rampant.
2. The internees from the above and other camps who were repatriated boarded the British exchange vessel in a thoroughly weakened physical and nervous condition. Many became ill during the hot voyage through the tropics to Lourenço Marquez. The British ship's doctor and his assistant refused to attend to the Japanese saying that their services were reserved only for British nationals.
3. A consulate chancellor who as an official should be accorded special treatment under international practice was interned in a camp in Rangoon with civilians of non-official status. Having been in transit and thus not having registered, he was taken from the Japanese consulate where other consular officials were interned by a British official who promised that he would be brought back as soon as he had registered. Instead he became the victim of British trickery and taken to the above-mentioned camp where he was stripped of his clothes, his hat torn to shreds and his shoes ripped apart.
From there he was taken to a prison at Insein, eleven miles from Rangoon, and confined with seventy others of our nationals in a small filthy cell. All were obliged to sleep on a rough concrete floor and the cell was so cramped that the internees had to lie immovable on their sides when they slept. From this prison the whole group was removed to another prison at Thayetmyo between Rangoon and Mandalay where the members underwent great hardships for two months, principally due to lack of water.
4. The consul-general at Singapore and his staff were first interned in the official residence of the consul-general but soon later they were placed in solitary confinement in the convict prison at Changi hitherto used for the incarceration of only the most dangerous criminals. When the consul-general strongly protested against this outrageous treatment, the British authorities responded in an unofficial letter that it was a "strong, modern building" and gave the ridiculous excuse that it was the "best protection against Chinese mobs."
5. When the consular officials at Colombo were removed to India all the money in their possession was taken away on the promise that it would be returned without fail before they left India. This promise was not kept.
6. Before boarding the exchange vessels all the baggages of our nationals were thoroughly inspected and most of their personal belongings including money, watches, shirts and underclothes were mercilessly confiscated. There was not a single official of the Indian Government aboard the exchange vessel, only scores of British soldiers armed with bayonets closely watching and following every movement of our repatriates during the entire voyage.
These are only a few of many cases of British indecency and barbarity in the handling of our nationals whom they interned. From these few examples alone it is not difficult to imagine the nature of all other cases or of the experiences that will be recounted by our nationals who are returning on the second vessel which is due to arrive soon.
Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, addressing the British Parliament
last March, spoke vehemently of the alleged atrocities committed by the Japanese authorities against British civilians and war prisoners in Hongkong after its capitulation. Japan at that time was astonished and hard put to understand why the Foreign Minister of a leading world Power should make such a flagrant and unfounded charge. Japan knows now, however. It has now become perfectly clear that the charges were made against us as a world-wide propaganda to conceal Britain's guilty conscience over the atrocities which were being committed at that very moment by her own authorities against our nationals. This is another testimony of the characteristic and "nauseating hypocrisy" of the so-called English gentlemen.