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ATIS translation of S/D (15 October 1946) About 20 August 1945 SATO went to the Tokyo War Ministry, heard his purpose was to burn all documents re 33-29 crewmembers sent previously from WA as well as the false reports on 16 men. On his return SATO said that he extracted from the war ministry document files the report which stated that 16 men had burned to death in the 19 June raid and returned with them, intended to burn them in Fukuoka, that he had requested by telephone that the "copies" of these documents sent from WA Judicial Sec. (GEN ITO) to the War Ministry Judicial Bureau be burned since he had no opportunity to go there, that he talked to a colonel (the only colonel in Judicial Bureau at that time was OKI) who answered that all documents at the Judicial Bureau pertaining to PWs had already been burned. Defendant heart that SATO went to Tokyo for these reasons: 1. Prior to 19 June the names of all flyers were reported to the War Ministry by the Operations Department, but not after. Thus, if the 16 previously reported were accounted for the by 19 June airraid, and the rest had been sent to Hiroshima (atomic bombing) the fact of execution would remain un-discovered. Thus, thought best to have the remains of the 16 buried in the military cemetary. 2. However, some airmen were sent to WAH after the Hiroshima bombing, and Hiroshima would not comply with the WAH request to claim they had received a large number of crew members. As a result, it was decided that the false reports re the 16 and all other reports be burned so that the time and number of flyers brought to WAH would not be known, and so some other scheme of concealment was necessary. Defendant then states that SATO returned about 20 August from Tokyo. About 25 August Defendant went to Kanoya as a member of a liaison team to arrange for occupation of Kanoya by the OF, returned 7 September, at which time demobilization orders had been issued and Defendant did not go to headquarters, and did not know in detail the plans of concealment subsequently formed. At the time of demobilization "they" bad been instructed to state that they heard that all the PWs died at Hiroshima, if questioned* Defendant then frequently went to the Demobilization Inspection Bureau, where he heard that the plans of the Operations Department had been altered so as to claim that the crew members had died in Hiroshima or transferred to a Special Attack Unit. General ITO was asked to write a report to conform with the Operations Department plans, but he refused and as a result was relieved of his position around December, was replaced by OKI, who was either bribed or forced to write a false report. Since the situation made it practically impossible to keep up the falsehood in the long run, Defendant decided to tell the truth if questioned. He was questioned by OKI around December 45, SUZUKI around March 1946, told the truth, (refers to submitting previous statement made to OKI) |