Cold-Blooded Murder

of N. Ireland Internees War Trial In Hongkong Reveals Fate of 23 Men

rE mystery surrounding the disap pearance of about a score of resi dents of New Ireland has now been partially cleared up. It was known that these men had been captured by the Japs in 1942, but they had not been sent to Rabaul and therefore apparently es caped the fate of internees there who were sent to Japan on the “Montevideo Maru,” and subsequently were lost when that ship was torpedoed by an American warship in June, 1942.

The nature of their fate, hpwever, will give no comfort to the relatives.

At the opening of a war crimes trial in Hongkong on November 24, it was stated that the Japanese in Kavieng used ju-jitsu and strangulation to mas sacre 23 Australian civilian internees in Kavieng, some time in 1942. The bodies were later weighted with cement and dumped in deep water.

Six Japanese are on trial for this crime. All are ex-Navy men and all pleaded not guilty. They are; Rear Admiral Tamura Ryukichi, Commander Yoshino Shozo. Lieut.-Commander Mori Kyoji. Lieutenants Mochizuki Highitaro and Suzuki Shozo, and Chief Petty Officer Horiguchi Yoshio.

Major A. D. Mackay, an Australian who prosecuted at the trial, said that after the war the accused conspired to conceal the fact that the massacre had ever taken place, and invented a story that the in ternees had been sent away on a ship which had been sunk before it reached Japan.

The 23 civilians had been interned near Kavieng after Japan had overrun New Ireland. They were mostly elderly men,

but one was a boy of 14 (the son of H.

J. Topal, who was also interned).

In March, 1942, Tamura ordered Yoshino to execute the foreign internees in the event of an Allied landing. The order was transmitted to Mori, who in March 1944, believed that an Allied landing was imminent. The execution order was therefore put into effect.

Mochizuki, Susuki and Horiguchi carried it out. (See also “Territories Talk-Talk,” this issue.)