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Statement of Odashima (14 Nov 1947) 53, former colonel, was Chief Secretary of PWIB, his chief General Hei Hamada to November 1944 and Lt. Gen. Hiroshi Tamura from December 1944 to April 1946. The PWIB did not customarily receive reports regarding disposition and management of captured flyers who were not given the status of PW - they were 1st treated as potential war criminals until it was determined they were PWs. After the war, PWIB would receive reports from various units, such as WAH as to deaths of captured airmen, which was reported to the International Red Cross. Kanamaru (Maj) was in charge of this work. Odashima denies telling Col. Sakada that the wounded or sick B-29 flyers were not to be given medical treatment and that such flyers were not to be given any rights. Authority regarding medical affairs of the Prisoners was under War Ministry Medical Bureau. The PWIB did receive reports when an airman was determined to be a PW. The captured flyer would be investigated by the unit capturing them; if it decided he was not a war criminal suspect, a report was sent to the War Ministry, which decided where he would be confined, and after being put in a detention house, a report was sent to Odashima's bureau, and a name card was made. The PWIB did not receive records of trial of captured airmen, since not PWs. The PWIB had no record on Prisoners or executions until the war ended; PWIB picked up records as of the investigation of 10 October 1947 as to capture, conviction, and execution of flyers. Records of non-PWs were kept by the local armies only. It would not be possible for one to alter the records or withdraw a particular document once having gone through the central registry of the PWIB. Nor would it be possible to substitute a new page and falsify only the receipt of one document, since the hans of all who had stamped the old document would have to be added (???) Odashima received no report as to enemy airmen captured in Kyushu until the end of the war. The documents of surrender provided that all captives would be treated as PWs. Odashima met Col. Sato in Tokyo after the war once. (Odashima then recalls that in May 1945 he went to the Fukuoka dentention building, not WAH) Sato came up to the PWIB to see the Chief of the Bureau (Tamura), and Odashima talked to him immediately after. Odashima believes Sato then went by himself into the Information and Intelligence Section. Odashima recalls that Sato told him that he came to discuss matters regarding captured enemy flyers with the PWIB Chief. Odashima knows nothing of his getting a report. (A Capt. Kakai was in charge of the information section). All reports received from the units have been turned over to the Occupation Forces. |