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Statement of Nishihara (14-19 July 1947) 47, RA, Lt. Gen. 1941, CG of 57th Army April 1945, CG of WA 25 October 1945, CG of Western Demobilization Bureau from 1 December 1945. No atrocities were committed at 57th Army. About 17 August 1945 there was a meeting of all army commanders under WA to discuss demobilization and transfer of military supplies to the Occupation Forces, which included CGs of the 56th, 57th and 40th armies and of the Kurume and Kumamoto Military Administrative Districts; no PW atrocities were mentioned. Nishihara attended a meeting of army commanders in Tokyo about 17 and 18 November 1945 called by the Minister of War, Shimomura, in which all received orders to report any atrocities committed on American PWs. Since Nishihara had only been with WAH about 3 weeks and knew nothing of the acts during the war, Nishihara asked vice-Minister of War Hara, to explain these things to Fukushima also, and this subsequent meeting was held the same day in the evening, the meeting including Hara, Chief of Military Affairs Bureau, Lt. Gen. Yoshizumi, Fukushima, Nishihara, and Sato. Hara stated that any atrocities at WA must be reported; Fukushima disagreed, saying it was unnecessary and not good for future Japanese-American relations but at the conclusion seemed to agree with Hara. It was not said that there had been any atrocities. Nishihara and Sato said nothing. Inada, Nishihara's Chief of Staff, advised Nishihara in the last of November or first of December that Sato, Ito and Fukushima had something to do with atrocities, that between June and August 1945, 31 PWs were killed . Nishihara immediately sent Akita to Tokyo to send down some investigators, and they sent Col. Oki, who arrived about the end of December. Nishihara asked Oki and Inada to investigate this matter, then had the report sent to Tokyo about the end of January 1946, and at the same time advised the CIC detachment in Fukuoka. |
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Statement of Nishihara (13 August 1947) As CG of the 57th, no American flyers were captured, that Nishihara knows about. |