‘Between 30 November 1945 and 9 April 1951, 924 enemy nationals were tried for war crimes in 296 trials conducted by Australian military courts. The enabling legislation – the War Crimes Act 1945 – was passed by both houses of the Australian parliament on the same day (4 October 1945). Of those found guilty by these trials, 148 were sentenced to death and executed. An additional 496 were given prison sentences.
Trials were conducted in eight venues – Labuan, Wewak, Morotai, Rabaul, Darwin, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Manus Island.’
Major Totaro Mizutani, Commander of the northern most camps of the Burma-Thai Railway was stationed at Kanchanaburi.
While the WarTrials proceeded at Labuan for Sandakan and North Borneo, the Singapore trials were also underway with prosecutors from US, Britain, Australian and Dutch.
‘Mizutani was an elderly former professional soldier who enlisted in 1907 and retired in 1930, but recalled in 1938 at the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War. Mizutani’s age (62 at the time of the trial) caused various problems during trial.
The trial also provided an insight into the role of Korean guards in the Japanese Army. Mizutani claimed that Korean guards were volunteers who had signed up under a 2-year contract, but the waning Japanese war effort meant that they were not allowed to return home even after the contractual period. Mizutani stated that he felt that Korean guards were unreliable, and believed that they had no knowledge of firing a rifle. Mizutani also testified that the Japanese HQ did not trust the efficiency and professionalism of Korean guards.’
“Mizutani you have pleaded for mercy, yet there was little mercy for the wives and mothers of these unfortunate men who fell into your clutches”
Below: Mizutani made sick POWs march at night from 18km to 33km carrying baggage threatening them with a machine gun, he was Commander at 80km Hospital Camp where he made sick POWs march at night from 80km to 100km hitting out at sick POWs with his sheathed sword, Tamuang Camp he shot a POW, he burned several men on different occasions and always worked the POWs long hours, like slaves, starving and sick.
Below: From Daily Newspaper Perth 21 May 1946
Below: Korean guard Hayashi Eishun – Burma-Thai Railway
We wish to acknowledge the following information is from The Singapore War Trials website
Mizutani Totaro – Singapore War Crimes Trials. (2021). Retrieved 10 October 2021, from https://singaporewarcrimestrials.com/case-summaries/detail/037
‘The defendant, Major Mizutani Totaro, was accused of three separate charges.
For the first charge, Mizutani was accused of inhumane treatment of P.O.W.s involved in the construction of the Burma-Siam railway. These included, inter alia, forcing sick prisoners to march for over 200 miles to work, failing to provide sufficient food and medical supplies and physical maltreatment. 570 out of around 2000 P.O.W.s allegedly died under Mizutani’s charge.
For the second charge, Mizutani was accused of ill-treating an unnamed Burmese civilian who had been begging for food. Mizutani allegedly took a burning piece of wood and touched the victim with it, causing burns all over his body.
For the third charge, Mizutani was accused of killing a British P.O.W., Fusilier Wanty, L.W., after Wanty was caught wandering outside his sleeping quarters after lights out. Mizutani shot Wanty from the back with a rifle.’ Tamuang Camp.
Mizutani was an elderly former professional soldier who enlisted in 1907 and retired in 1930, but recalled in 1938 at the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War. Mizutani’s age (62 at the time of the trial) caused various problems during trial.
The trial also provided an insight into the role of Korean guards in the Japanese Army. Mizutani claimed that Korean guards were volunteers who had signed up under a 2-year contract, but the waning Japanese war effort meant that they were not allowed to return home even after the contractual period. Mizutani stated that he felt that Korean guards were unreliable, and believed that they had no knowledge of firing a rifle. Mizutani also testified that the Japanese HQ did not trust the efficiency and professionalism of Korean guards.
You can read the charges against Muzitani
Please read further the charges against Muzitani
Below: Are just a small part of proceedings.
Below: Please note should read ‘the amputation of a leg’
Below: Tamuang POW Camp 1944.
Major Edward Raymond Meagher, 2/2nd Pioneers described in in an Affidavit prepared in Melbourne after the war, how he found 150 Australian, American, Dutch and British POWs in Burma camp hospital, 80 km Camp, in August 1943 in a bad way lying in filth and squalor in a hut large enough for 40 men.
All the Camp work was done by the patients including the digging of their own graves.
Mizutani, Totaro. Major. From Japanese military. From Japan. Guilty. Death by Hanging. Sentence confirmed.
PERHAPS MIZUTANI WAS BLINDED BY THE RISING SUN – we will always remember the POWs whose deaths Mizutani was responsible for and injuries he caused to men who suffered for a lifetime because of his sadistic tendencies.
Another trial that took place in Singapore was the “Double Tenth” trial held from 18 March to 15 April 1946 involving 21 Japanese soldiers and interpreters accused of torturing and killing prisoners interned at Changi Prison. The Double Tenth incident was the result of Operation Jaywick, during which six Japanese oil tankers docked at Keppel Harbour were blown up on 27 September 1943. Suspecting that prisoners at Changi Prison were responsible, the Kempeitai, or Japanese military police, raided the prison on 10 October 1943 and discovered a wireless set hidden there. As a result, 57 internees were tortured and interrogated over several months, leading to 15 deaths.
