The Savagery of Japan
The sensibility of the civilised world is not so blunted by records of enemy cruelty as to fail to react with inexpressible horror to the accounts of Japanese barbarity in the treatment of prisoners of war and civil internees. This exceeds German barbarities by the fact that it is continuous, systematic, unparalleled in deliberate, sadistic cruelty. From all quarters the cry is raised that something must be done to stop it. But what? Everything that could be done by representations, through neutral countries, and through the International Red Cross, has already been done. Only indirect measures are open to the Allies. First, they will pursue the war with the utmost intensity to the end ; but this in any case was their resolve. Secondly, they must proceed to collect their evidence against the war criminals, and formulate the principles on which they will try them and punish them. Thirdly, and this perhaps may be the most effective of the instruments now in our hands—they should give the fullest and unsparing publicity to these atrocities through official statements, through the Press, through the radio, in every part of th: world. Mr. Eden and Mr. Cordell Hull took the right course when they made solemn statements revealing the facts. Painful as it may be to relatives and friends, this publicity in all its horrible detail must be relentlessly continued and pressed. It must be understood in all countries, including India, what sort of enemy it is we are fighting against—a people and a Government with the minds and the practices of the lowest of savages, made all the more horrible and dangerous by the fact that they have a malevolent intelligence and are equipped with the latest inventions of science. In the past it has been an ambition of Japan to be accepted as a civilised nation. Her propaganda to prove it has utterly broken down through the stark savagery of her deeds. When the limelight is thrown on the actions which betray her nature, her prestige as a civilised Power must drop to zero. With this sort of knowledge before them not one of the United Nations will rest till this regime rim been destroyed.
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