,I.'~ION
( .$/iL) Office Ol~ the lI.ttormy Gez.ral# Govar rmle nt B\U'eau f or Wt.r Crilnes Inve st i1J;at iona•
. 21410/R
AFl"ID.,VIT
On title 2 6th da~r o~ r;ovember 1~47faplil.eared :Pflf~re me,
Jpier tl l.l:4m l'heodoor, IllVEJet1gati~ ~.fr iaeje a88ig~d to the
DrilllOh 01'-1'108 f or t. Irlmu I~ve8tiglOt1.olll , -hold illg Off;i.ce at •
oahli&.lI'~ • - DeI!- llsldor , a person WQ.\:l doolarad to be I
i jI
sadistic
oould
but
night
5. Ca.n ~rou give me i nfornation concerning maltreatments of
\'Ihich either you or othe~'s were the victims,a-nd to wh ioh
you wer e !l witness?
I was a prisoner of war in lI1iyata Call1p, Fuklioka 9,
Japa n, from June 1944 to October 1945. The foreman in
!!ine Uo. II ~8 s Fuch imoto, nic kname liThe Tiger". I worked I
with. amor~ others, Sailor 1st Glass keyar; Corporal, 1ie.rine s •
,jlisl::er; a Dd Jailor W I. dar ate l in a party of about five
i n "'ina lro. II. Freeman. a k ilitia Private in the L"toyal
~therlands Indies ,ormy. &.lso belo q;ea to our party. In
this party I worked in Ootober and l'o-..ember 1944. One
night. be ing o n the night shift. Fuohimoto dealt me several
,b l aws on my baok and head withbhe handle of a kakita (mine
soraper ), fo Hawed by a. number of blows with his hand on
my face • . and thereupon he threw a COUple of big rccks "1;;0
wards me . One of those hit my shins and Cf! used an abrasion.
He did this be ca use I worked too slowly to suit him.
Freeman suffered 6mrmously from this Fuchimoi;o. livery
day he wa s ma ltreated with sticks or rocks or whatevcl' the
Japa nese happened to have in h is hands. I have seen t~, is ~
myse lf on se.rer.el ocoa sions. Finally, Freeman -h!l.d a nervous r, breakdown as !l result of these actions and , about Ja nuary 1945,
he was ma de an or
by Ii few blows whic~ I suffered at the hands of' a Japanese
Corpora l be~s. ·use I ,\"a s not in my hut. Th is occurred about
20 August 1945 . He bea t me several time s on lroy body with a
wo oden samura i (drill saber) . The day before (or r:;aybe one
day later) thits Dorpo.ral, at two 0 I clock in the . afternoon,
made the whole camp fall in and e'V8rybody had t.o march past
him, whe n he rece i .ved Ii few b lows with a wooden sword f'rom
the Corporal.
There. was. no rea son for t his at a ll, and the war was
over . He, there fore, beat merely out of pure sadism. Thi s
Jap pickad espe:.oia lly on OM Pen, a Mi litia Priw.te in the
Royal Nether la.tld.s Indie s Army, who wa~ i n ohar g'e of the coo k
house. Pen suffered very much from this Corporal, who se
name I oannot give '. I co l onger remember whether he had a
niQkDalll(l . I hll.ve often, myself seen Pen being beaten up by
him , be ofl.use Pen ref used to surrender oW' food f rom Red Orol5ll
par cels to him. Usua lly he would beat with the woo den sword
which he a l ways carried. About a week after the oapftulatio~
he made t he entire Cook Rouse crew ·assuna the on-the-haruis-down
pos ition and 1faeat the.m one after aIlOther with the swo.r d. It~ ~'
was sa id thtit he boat t hem beca use b~ was dissatisfied with ~
something . I have seen this myselt . Pe.n, Jtloeg, K~"Pers (a
teaoher at the 3andoe~ High Sohool) and others were amo~
the viotims on that oo oasion.
Tillen I came to the oamp in 1~44-, t here was a Japane se
oor geant there , whose name 1 have ~orgotteD . Be was nick-
DallJEld lIL.ankpootll (~ •. N~J lIThe Gimp") . I have oi'ten soe n h im
beat our people for·.ll · sor~B of tr ivial reasons . He wa s ·
slightly l imp i ng in one leg. hence his niomllla. I be lieve
th.t he r elllained in the OliD1p until (~bout) lI1ay 1945, and he
was then repltloed. He 'was eriremely short telllpsred . I re
member quite vividly how one day in 1944, after a shakedown
3
Sargeant
unknown, who .
I
JaF
ered.
as
believe he' .was
beat often
details.
in the ·
o'clock.
carrying a'
name
wa s
a nd vias
en the
of tlle camp ·to find people who had dodged the milles, he
pic ked three people out of' the line-up of prisoners, who had
not g one to the mi~s. When these three were lined IIp. he
made towards them viith his drawn samurai and pushed each
one .of them with his bare sword. One of t hese people received
an i nj ury in t he car diac reg iO,n thro ugh the po i~t of the
sword, >l !ld he we s brought to the. hospital bleedi~ profusely.
and we s .e ttel"'.ded, to by yr. liilfma~. I saw this maltreatment
myself'. 'l' he victim, whose nll me I h: ve forgotten, l a ter
succl.Mlbed in a mille accident in Mine r:Jo. 8. '1'his was the
only fatal accide.nt · in 1.ioo Ho. 8. The victim was a reg ular
soldier in the ltoye.1 ~etherlands Indies Arroy. iipart from
this occa sion, I have seen "The Gimp" beat quite frequently •
. " hen there was a soldi er . I believe he was a
in the Japanese guard, name unknown, nickname
beat vary much. I . myself. have not been beaten by him.
can no longer give exact details of maltreatment by this
aneae '. £Ie came to the camp af ter 1. arrived. He stamm
How I remember that he was sometimes being referred to
"The Jtamnlerer".
Another Je-penese soldier of' the s uard-- I
a Corporal-""Wlls nioknamed "..>to/kman" (T.N.s "Stick Litan") • r .. He elYl8.ys carried ~ stic\c in his. hands, and he~t and wi'thotTt any r ea son. I can DO lo~er g ive the
In the winter of 1944 and 1945, I ha.ppen:ld to be .... . . .
vicinity o'f ..Cook House, in the aft&rnoon. at ·a.bout two
when a Japanese soldier vv"!l.s patrolliIig the camp ,
rifle with the bayonet fixed. A prisoner of war, whose
I ha ve forgotten. but he was a planter in Java and he
L 5ter .P ut to. wor k in the Camp farm unde!' Petty Orr ieer
cherpezael,- had gotten a light in the Cook Ko use
smoking in the hltrinea close to the Co'O k House .
4
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Jap discovC3red t Lis, he g a ve the prisonar of war as-t ab
T:ith his bayonat i n the broin (I believe it v:a s t he right
gro i n). it was prohibite d a t t hat t:ime to smoke. I stood
at a. dit,-(;ance of aoout eight yards. F.e "re. S bro l.i2: ht to the
doc '(;or by our people and he was i n the hosp ita l for a bout
three weeks. When he lef t the hospital, he was st i ll lirnpi r~ .
The Jap!inese referred to was about twenty-eight years of age.
small, t hin . and he wore &lasses • . According to his own story~
he via s a r eject.. d soldier. Like all other JapaneBe~ he beat
much and without r eason. I s uffered a blow at hi s ha nds
myself on one oC C8sion. loan g ive !lO mor::: details about
these ca ses of be a tings.
I hew nothing more to st at e. e;-: cept that Pen, the Militia
Frivr.te in the Roya l lie therlands Irlliies l\rmy. a planter by
occupation. who is a t p r e sent living at Haar lem (T . H.: Holland),
exact address unknown, could undoubtedly f!, ive ma ny f acts about
ev-snt s in ll iy&ta Camp. since he kept a diary. and he wa s in
that camp for t he v.hole duratio n of the war. He also knows
the names of Ill8. IV Japanese in the camp.
6. Wh", t ViliS the name or the nickname of the perpetrator of the
rr:a ltreatl7lents mentioned by you, and could you des cribe 'nem? .'" , t~
7. li'hat other persons or witnesses were there to these maltreat
ments? -
8. Ih v'6 you a nything more to state which l1Iigh'c serve in this in
ve stigetion? - -
Ver ifice tion by the Affia.nt J
I, the unde rsigned. H. " . lii l !lEo nts aforesa.id. hereby declare that
I "cElS sllDl!lonsd and interrogat e d under oath by the inberroglltor, who in
formed me t ha t my oath w
-- ." I, the unders i g ned, affiant, CI:l rtii)' that I have duly made oath
in t he prastlnCfl of the interrogat or a nd that I sigIl&d the above record
of stetelJ.ent on 2b Nov eL-,ber 1947.
/ s/ a. G. Wijmnts
The above statements were signed in my presence, a nd this reoord
has been drawn up aoourately a r.o. signed by me, the interrogator, on
28 h01."Smber 1947 a t Den Helder.
'l'he inter r ogator afores&id J
/ s/ li . T. Sp ier , 1)E-AL)
Offioe ot' the l'.ttorney General GOv0rmnent Burea u for War (;riJnes Investi ga.tions
I hereby oertify the above to be a true aDd accurate trans1a
tion, to t he best of my knowle dge ond 'b'li~~or",'=l .",ned
affidavit in Dutch, as i dent ified above.
G. J. Jo ~e jails, "Pt~ mITll., Netherlaruia Lia. ison Officer, le[;al Section.
6
TJill, s:'J!.I' 10 N
~,ecoIJept 0 l-.l·iIA, I.atherlands Liaison Officer, LJga l ;jection.
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