ed over to members of the Australian Army at the end of hostilities. At the War Crimes Trial questions were asked as to why the bodies were cremated when other Allied deaths usually resulted in burial in mass graves. Why was the camp commander on Watom Island, Colonel Kahachi Ogata, never informed that prisoners were about to be transferred from the mainland? Could it be that the thirty one prisoners were deliberately massacred to ease the crowded conditions in the tunnel camp, and to hide their crime, the Japanese had the bodies burned? There is no real evidence to either of these incidents. Were the prisoners massacred or did they really fall victim to 'Friendly Fire'? In 1948, Wakabayashi was again interrogated but maintains he is telling the truth.
MURDER ON WAKE ISLAND (January 12, 1943)
The Japanese invasion of Wake Island, a small atoll some 2,000 miles west of Hawaii (area 6.5 sq kms) cost them dearly, 11 naval craft, 29 planes and around 5,700 men killed. The stubborn defence of the island by the tiny garrison of 388 US Marines and 1,200 civilians workers lasted for fourteen heroic days. On December 23, 1941, Major James P.S. Devereux of the 1st. Defence Battalion, US Marine Corps, and Commander Winfield Cunningham of the Naval Air Station, realizing that the odds were hopelessly stacked against them, called for a cease fire, raised the white flag and surrendered the island. The loss of Wake Island left the US with no base between Hawaii and the Philippines. In January, 1942, the US Marines, numbering 1,187, were herded into the cargo holds of the 17,163 ton Japanese luxury liner Nitta Maru, for transportation to Yokohama and then to Shanghai. Those left behind included the civilians and the wounded Marines. A year passed and on the night of January 12, 1943, the Japanese accused the civilians of being in secret radio communication with US naval forces. The 97 American civilians still on Wake (actually 98 but one was caught stealing food and was beheaded) were marched to the beach and there lined up with their backs to the ocean and brutally murdered by machine guns. After the war, the Japanese commander on Wake, Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, and eleven of his officers, were sentenced to death by a US Naval Court at Kwajalein. Sakaibara was transported to Guam to await his fate. There, on 19 June 1947, he was executed by hanging. The murdered civilian P.O.W.s were later buried in Honolulu Memorial, Hawaii.
ATROCITIES ON GUAM
An island in the Marianas group and a US territory since 1898. Invaded by a Japanese naval force on December 10, 1941, three days after Pearl Harbor, it was the first US territory to be captured in WW11. In less than twenty four hours the US Garrison of 540 men was forced to surrender. Now under Japanese control for the next thirty two months, the islanders suffered unimaginative cruelties in which thousands died. On July 15, 1944, residents of the town of Merizo were rounded up and 25 men and 5 women (all schoolteachers) were selected form the group and taken to a cave in the nearby hills and murdered by hand grenades thrown into the opening. Fifteen victims survived by pretending to be dead. Another massacre occurred next day at the nearby Faha Caves when a group of 31 men were killed in similar circumstances but in this case no one survived. Many such killings took place during the Japanese occupation. In the town of Sumay, all residents were evicted from their homes while the Japanese troops moved in. During the move, 5 young women were raped. Some houses were requisitioned for brothels to allow 'Comfort Girls' a place to live and work while servicing the troops. Most of the male population were used as slaves, constructing airstrips and Pillboxes and such. When US forces retook the island on July 21, 1944, they found, in Yigo, 51 mutilated bodies and the beheaded bodies of another 30 men were found in the back of a truck. A total of 14,704 residents of Guam, all bearing the scars of war, survived the Japanese occupation.
KOKOPO AND BALLALAE MASSACRES
In November, 1942, six hundred 