|
Statement of Koga (7-9 July 1947) 53, a farmer, entered army 1951, made Colonel in 1943, assigned to WAH about March 1941, on 28 April became regimental CO of Western Defence 6th Regiment, remained with it until discharge 1 December 1945. For the first 4-5 months at WAH he was attached to Staff Section, then was Headquarters Senior Adjutant. On 1 April 1945 Koga left WAH to attend Chiba Infantry School, returned 24-25 April and passed position of senior adjutant to Lt. Col. Jin, left for the 6th Regiment 30 April. While Koga was at Chiba, Maj. Kusumoto did the work of senior adjutant. As Senior Adjutant, Koga's biggest job was the administration of the Officers of all WA troops, was also in charge of documents and written orders, all Headquarters records, daily reports of each section, the dispersing of reports to each section, supervisor of Headquarters Finance Section, also supervised work of next in command of Adjutant Section a&d all Officers in Adjutant Section. When Koga left 28 April 1945, the Adjutant Section roster was as follows: Maj. Kusumoto - 2nd in command, security Officer of secret documents, administration Officer of the EM of WA, in charge of the PWs. 1st Lt. Minami - 3rd in command, aide-de-camp to Yokoyama. Capt. Hori - in charge of education of EM, in charge of motor pool, took care of visitors outside Headquarters, including quarters and transportation. 2nd Lt. Goiyama - aided in keeping the records for the troops. 2nd Lt. Nakamura - CO of EM in WAH. W.O. Oguri - assistant to the Senior Adjutant in matters pertaining to Officers' Administration, was perhaps in charge of the motor pool while Hori was sick, since he was quite often sick in 1945. From 28 to 30 April Koga pointed out to Jin where the general records were, kept and instructed him in general. Once in late May or early June 1945 Koga returned to WAH on his way to Tokyo for part of a day. Heard nothing of PWs. After Koga was discharged in December 1945, Kusumoto told him that since the WA had submitted a false report concerning the PWs held there he had been placed in a bad position. This conversation took place between December 1945 and March 1946. Kusumoto said that he was going to tell the truth. Koga recalls hearing from Nakamura about the executions at Aburayama, and he said that he was being called in for questioning— this was in the early part of 1946. In early 1946 Oguri told him that about 30 WAH PWs were executed and that some of the Prisoners were operated on at KIU. Someone told him about the KIU operations at the time of the newspaper accounts of Ishiyama's suicide- it seemed to be a matter of general information by that time. All documents, letters, and orders to be circulated throughout the WA troops, forwarded to the CG, sent to higher headquarters, and those originating in the adjutant's section or staff section passed through the message center of the Adjutants Section. Kusumoto was in charge of circulating these documents. Koga -2- Minami would take documents to the CG or from him and saw most of the documents the CG saw. If a 13 Temporary Civilian Official wished to perform an unusual research or experiment, a letter asking for authority would probably either originate either from Medical Section or Staff Section, would pass through the adjutant section unopened, to be put in an envelope and sent to higher headquarters (?) This letter would be taken to CG, not b y Minami, but by either the highest ranking Officer of the MS or someone in staff section. If this research dealt' with PWs, the adjutant section would not take part in making up the letter. The Adjutant Section was responsible for feeding, moving, imprisonment, and numbering PWs, no relation to experiments performed on them. This would be responsibility of Medical or Staff Section. When the Prisoners were actually removed for the purpose of experimentation, Kusumoto would have been informed immediately of the fact and the reason for removal. |