|
|
Use the search box on the left to look for war crimes details, e.g. by trial location, location of alleged crime, type of crime, names of accused, names of victims, dates, etc
|
wo 235/821: Sugimoto Heikichi (杉本矢吉) and 2 otherS
5-7 FEBRUARY 1946
|
ACCUSED
1) Sergeant Major Sugimoto Heikichi (杉本矢吉) 2) Sergeant Kobayashi Takashi (小林隆) 3) Myasaki Kazuo (Civilian interpreter) (宮崎和夫) CHARGE(S) Torture and maltreatment leading to death VICTIM(S) Tham Ying Hong (died/sic), Tham Keng Yan (sic) (Updated 2020: Arthur Tham Yin Hong, Kenneth Tham Keng Tan) DATE OF CRIME(S) 21 Sept 1943 - 8 Nov 1943 LOCATION(S) OF CRIME(S) Singapore LOCATION OF TRIAL Singapore TRIAL DATE(S) 5-7 Feb 1946 PRESIDENT Lt. Col. S.C. Silkin, Royal Artillery, Barrister-at-law* *There are two SC Silkins in Royal Artillery regiment, one with service number 22248, a Mentioned in Despatches (MID) commendation who was involved in North West Europe theatre and D-Day; the other a Lieutenant with Temporary Captain rank from 12 Nov 1943 MEMBERS Maj. N.K. Sinha, 8th Battalion Kumoun (Kumaon)* *Most likely Nita Gopal Sinha, attached to Indian Army Regiment, with MID commendation and served in Burma & Eastern Frontier of India Capt. R.J. Topping, 6/8 Punjab* * Indian Army Regiment |
PROSECUTOR
N/A DEFENDING OFFICER N/A WITNESS(ES) FOR DEFENCE Sugimoto Heikichi Kobayashi Takashi Myasaki Kazuo WITNESS(ES) FOR PROSECUTION Tham Keng Yan, Tham Kim Guan, Mary Tan PLEA Not Guilty VERDICT 1) Sergeant Major Sugimoto Heikichi (杉本矢吉) - Guilty with exceptions 2) Sergeant Kobayashi Takashi (小林隆) - Guilty with exceptions 3) Myasaki Kazuo (Civilian interpreter) (宮崎和夫) - Not Guilty SENTENCE 1) Sergeant Major Sugimoto Heikichi (杉本矢吉) - 6 years imprisonment 2) Sergeant Kobayashi Takashi (小林隆) - 3 years imprisonment |
Following the dynamiting of ships in Singapore port on 26 and 27 September 1943,* the Japanese authorities became suspicious that civilian agents had been involved in these acts of sabotage. Staff Sergeant (Sho-Cho) Sugimoto Heikichi received information from a local Chinese informant, Ong Kew Lian, that Tham Ying Hong possessed a wireless radio set. This information was first relayed to his warrant officer and then passed up the chain of command to Lt. Col. Sumida, commander of the Kempeitai in Singapore. Sumida ordered a mass-scale arrest of civilians over two days; Sugimoto summarised this order as: "we had better make use of the 20th and 21st October, which date was scheduled for the day of investigation arrest of the enemy aliens still left uninterned." In the case of Tham Ying Hong, Sugimoto and Kobayashi were despatched along with several others to detain and arrest him. According to Sugimoto, Lt. Kodama was the superior officer who led the proceedings. However, during cross-examination, it was determined that Lt. Kodama had been sent back to Japan and he was therefore not prosecuted.
[*Note: The sabotage incident referred to in this case relates to Operation Jaywick launched by the Special Operations' Executives' Z Special Unit. It resulted in the sinking of seven ships at Singapore Harbour by disguised Allied commandos on board fishing vessel Krait, which successfully sailed back to Australia after the attack. In retaliation, mass arrests were conducted on 10 October which became known as the 'Double Tenth Incident' or 'Double Tenth Massacre.']
Ill-treatment of THAM KENG YAN and THAM YING HONG
THAM KENG YAN, 28, lived at No. 10 Duxton Hill. After the war, he worked at 223 Base Ordnance Depot Alexandra Barracks. His father, Tham Ying Hong, owned two homes, one at 10 Duxton Hill, the other at 65 Cantonement Road. On 21 October 1943 at around 5pm, the three accused, among others, arrived at THAM KENG YAN's residence and conducted a search of the premises for a wireless radio set:
"They broke open the door and forced themselves in. They started searching the house and asking who was the head of the house. I told them that the owner of the house was Tham Ying Hong and that he was at Cantonement Road. Then Sugimoto questioned me and hit me on the back and asked me to tell him where our radio sets were. I told him it wasn't in the house and I didn't know where it was. Sugimoto asked Kobayashi to fetch my father from Cantonement Road... He asked me to bend down, hands touching the floor, and started hitting me." (From THAM KENG YAN's testimony).
After an unfruitful search, and when beating THAM KENG YAN yielded no results, THAM YING HONG, 50, who was then employed as Chinese Inspector of Fisheries Department, was escorted from his Cantonement Road house to Duxton Hill. Below is an excerpt from the cross examination of THAM KENG YAN as to what transpired:
Q: Now, will you tell the court what happened when your father was brought to the Duxton Hill house?
A: When my father was brought back, we were all herded upstairs, but we don't know what really happened, but we could hear my father being beaten. We could hear his cries from upstairs.
Q: When did you next see your father?
A: After my father was beaten I was called downstairs by one of the interpreters and I saw my father lying on the floor. His face was swollen and black and blue. I could hardly recognize him. I was asked again by Sugimoto where the radio set was. I told him I don't know and he ducked me in a big basin of water.
Q: Will you please repeat what you just said?
A: When Sugimoto asked me where the radio set was I could not tell him, and he started ducking me in the basin of water with my legs in the air. This was done by two persons, Sugimoto and the interpreter. ...When they took me out I could hardly stand, and they ducked me a second time.
Q: Did anything happen to your father at that time?
A: Yes Sir. After I was ducked, they took my father and started ducking him in the same way. ...I could see my father's head inside the basin.
Q: He was twice ducked?
A: Yes Sir.
[Omitted: Section related to establishing who did the ducking and how long this went on for.]
Q: What happened to your father after it was over?
A: After my father was ducked, they approached me to ask my father to confess where the set was. They left me with him for a few minutes and I approached him. My father had to confess where it was.
Q: How did your father eventually leave you?
A: He was asked to dress up. After having brought them to the house where the radio was kept -- I do not know where it is (the location of the radio) -- but somewhere in Cantonement Road -- they brought him home, asked him to dress up and took him away.
Two days later, THAM KENG YAN was also arrested and brought to the Kempeitai HQ at the YMCA. He was interned in a cell near his father's. THAM KENG YAN testifies that he heard his father coughing and groaning, saw him being taken out of his cell for questioning on several occasions, and also once saw Myasaki enter his father's cell and heard Myasaki scolding his father for groaning, followed by sounds of a beating. Under cross-examination by the defending officer, THAM KENG YAN admitted that he could not say with certainty who had tortured his father as he did not witness the acts himself. He could only definitively identify the perpetrators who had ill-treated him and his father on the day his father was arrested. Further, he confirmed that his father had indeed been found to be in possession of a wireless radio. [According to Sugimoto, following an order from the 25th Army HQ in August 1942, civilians were prohibited from owning wireless radios.] On the 6 November 1943, THAM KENG YAN was taken from his cell by several Kempei to identify his father's body -- "He was very thin when I saw his body. I could see his bones jutting out and marks on his thigh." He was issued with his father's death certificate which listed the cause of death as "general debility with enteritis." THAM KENG YAN was released thereafter and told "...your father's case is over and you are free now."
Witness Mary Tan (@ Chan Yoke Cheng), 51, wife of THAM YING HONG and a registered midwife, testified that on 21 October 1943 around 4am, Kobayashi Takashi, along with six others arrived at their home at Cantonement Road:
"At first I heard someone kicking the door of my house. I came from upstairs and went to the hall. On reaching the hall I saw someone pointing two pistols through the window. Our windows was not locked but had iron bars... I opened the door."
Mary claimed that when Kobayashi entered the house, he asked, 'Do you know anyone with the name of Chan?' THAM YING HONG told Kobayashi that there was no such person there and showed their family registration card to the MP who threw it on the floor. Kobayashi ordered two men to search the house. When they went upstairs, Mary followed them. "These two men ransacked everything in my room, throwing clothing and other articles about, and in one of my almeirahs (cupboard) they found a camera in which I had five hundred dollars, Straits Currency, which the man took away. They also took away a pair of binoculars." Not long after, a maid servant working at Duxton Hill was escorted to their house and "she pointed out that my husband was the man Accused No. 2 (Kobayashi) was looking for. Then Accused No. 2 grasped my husband's chest by his hand and went on punishing him. I then asked my daughter to kneel down to beg accused not to do that. Accused gave a kick on the shoulder of my daughter while she was in the kneeling position. When Accused No. 2 saw my daughter and myself crying he took my husband into a room. In the room I heard the cries of my husband. When my husband came out of the room his both hands were tied at the back. My husband was taken to a car outside."
An hour later, THAM YING HONG was brought back to the house. Mary described his condition: "I saw my husband's face was blue sir. His pyjamas were torn and I could see black marks on his chest... My husband tried to persuade me not to worry in spite of his condition. I asked him if he felt pain, and he told me not to worry. Then he came to the back of the house to get a cup of hot water and after he drank he was taken away." A week later, Mary was arrested and taken to YMCA where she was held for two days. She claimed she was made to kneel down and kicked by a Japanese officer who accused her of having Europeans in their home, a charge she denied. "During the two days at the YMCA I could hear my husband vomiting. I could see my husband from the place where I was kept. I saw him groaning on the floor." The next time she saw her husband was when his body was returned to the Duxton Hill residence on 6 November 1943. [At this point, Mary broke down and the court was adjourned for a few minutes.]
Under cross-examination by the defending officer, Mary admitted that she did not recognize Sugimoto or Myasaki. Apart from what she had witnessed at their home, she could not testify to Kobayashi beating or torturing her husband while in custody.
Witness Tham Kim Guan, 21, daughter of THAM YING HONG testified that she lived at 64 Cantonement Road and was present during the arrest of her father. She could only identify Kobayashi as the man who had ill-treated her father at the time of arrest. However, she could not speak to what happened to THAM YING HONG when he was in custody and she was not present to identify her father's body upon his death.
Notes
Defendants' Testimonies and Defence
1) Sergeant Major Sugimoto Heikichi (杉本矢吉)
According to Sugimoto, the Singapore Kempeitai HQ had three departments/sections. The commanding officer was Lt. Col. Sumida. His deputy was Lt. Kodama. Section 1 was involved with military policing and jurisdiction. Sugimoto was attached to Section 2 headed by Warrant Officer Sakamoto. Above him was a staff sergeant and there were 13 to 14 personnel in his section. He claimed "my duties were to collect information" and that this 'Information Section' "concerned itself with the search for spies, communists and any element which was against the Japanese Army." Section 2 was primarily concerned with anti-Japanese activities among the Chinese segment of the population, He also claimed that his section did not participate in interrogations and that these were undertaken by personnel from Section 3 led by Warrant Officer Uyeno. (At another time, during cross-examination, Sugimoto also claimed that Section 3 was "concerned with the Caucasian race - White People - to study their movements and their tendencies," which contradicted his earlier assertion that Section 3 was involved with interrogations of all suspects.)
Sugimoto stated that he had been directly involved in interrogations with "suspected communists" only on two occasions in 1945. Sugimoto's testimony during cross-examination was at times contradictory. He claimed, for example, that possession of a wireless set was outlawed, but that it was not a serious offence. Yet, he also testified to the scale of the two-day operations across the island to arrest multiple suspects, among them THAM YING HONG. Further, though he claims he was not usually involved in interrogations, he had made the unilateral decision, in the absence of his commanding officer, to interrogate THAM YING HONG. However, while Sugimoto admitted to ducking THAM YING HONG in a tub of water three times, he was adamant that he had not beaten the suspect. After arresting him and escorting him to the Kempeitai HQ, he had handed him over to Staff Sergeant Shin, and had nothing else to do with the prisoner after that.
2) Sergeant Kobayashi Takashi (小林隆)
Kobyashi testified that he had been among the arresting party at the Cantonment Road house. However, he was only involved in assembling the family members on the ground floor and guarding them along with two other MPs. After about an hour, he was ordered to join the other group at the Duxton Hill property. There, he witnessed "from the back entrance" of the property, Sugimoto and THAM YING HONG "near the bath house." He engaged in a search of the upper floor of property. After about half an hour later, when he returned to the ground floor, he observed that they were still in the back of the house. However, he did not see or hear the suspect being beaten or tortured, and he did not overhear what was being said. All in all, he had spent about 2 hours at the Duxton Hill property but denied witness testimonies placing him with Sugimoto and the suspect in the back of the house. He testified seeing THAM KENG YAN at the back of the house where "the son was telling something to his father, something sort of appealing" (as in pleading). He denied that Tham Kim Guan had begged him for mercy.
Kobayashi also testified that Mary Tan had "looked worried" and had approached him with clothes for her husband in her hands; "...she spoke to me in Chinese, but I understood she wanted me to take this clothes to the man." When asked why he thought she was worried, Kobayashi answered, "It was because her husband was wet I think. I do not know what other reason there could be Sir... She was just worried about the investigation that was going on." When the arresting party, in three cars, returned to HQ, Kobayashi observed THAM YING HONG being taken into the building. When asked whether the prisoner looked "quite normal", Kobayashi stated: "I don't think there was anything peculiar Sir, although he looked slightly dejected." Kobayashi denied that he had ever assaulted any civilians in his care and that this was "outside of my duties." Kobayashi claimed that an earlier testimony taken from him had been mistranslated. He also admitted that he had discussed the case with Sugimoto and Myasaki recently, prior to the trial, but denied that they had compared notes before giving evidence so as to "make what we knew agree with each other." Kobayashi claimed that according to military regulations, the use of force against an accused or prisoner was forbidden.
3) Myasaki Kazuo (Civilian interpreter) (宮崎和夫)
Myasaki was an interpreter at the Kempeitai HQ. He was born in Telok Anson, Perak state to a Japanese mother and a Malay father and was a naturalised Japanese citizen. He claimed to not a little Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew and Hainanese (Chinese dialects) but was employed only as a Malay language interpreter.
He denied being with Sugimoto and Kobayashi during the arrest of THAM YING HONG. In his testimony, Myasaki stated that there were 14 to 15 interpreters employed at the HQ, but over those two days, as there were mass arrests, "some people who knew English and even Chinese were employed from the Propaganda Department at the Cathay Building to give a helping hand." He testified that he had seen or heard of cases at the HQ where inmates were beaten up but not tortured. That an interpreter may slap or hit a prisoner but only when instructed by a MP to do so. He also confirmed that there were 5 cells in the building, each usually held between 5 to 6 people; and that interpreters did not question inmates in these cells, but only when they were taken to an interrogation room. He denied having been involved in the interrogation of THAM YING HONG when he was held there. Myasaki was acquitted.
[*Note: The sabotage incident referred to in this case relates to Operation Jaywick launched by the Special Operations' Executives' Z Special Unit. It resulted in the sinking of seven ships at Singapore Harbour by disguised Allied commandos on board fishing vessel Krait, which successfully sailed back to Australia after the attack. In retaliation, mass arrests were conducted on 10 October which became known as the 'Double Tenth Incident' or 'Double Tenth Massacre.']
Ill-treatment of THAM KENG YAN and THAM YING HONG
THAM KENG YAN, 28, lived at No. 10 Duxton Hill. After the war, he worked at 223 Base Ordnance Depot Alexandra Barracks. His father, Tham Ying Hong, owned two homes, one at 10 Duxton Hill, the other at 65 Cantonement Road. On 21 October 1943 at around 5pm, the three accused, among others, arrived at THAM KENG YAN's residence and conducted a search of the premises for a wireless radio set:
"They broke open the door and forced themselves in. They started searching the house and asking who was the head of the house. I told them that the owner of the house was Tham Ying Hong and that he was at Cantonement Road. Then Sugimoto questioned me and hit me on the back and asked me to tell him where our radio sets were. I told him it wasn't in the house and I didn't know where it was. Sugimoto asked Kobayashi to fetch my father from Cantonement Road... He asked me to bend down, hands touching the floor, and started hitting me." (From THAM KENG YAN's testimony).
After an unfruitful search, and when beating THAM KENG YAN yielded no results, THAM YING HONG, 50, who was then employed as Chinese Inspector of Fisheries Department, was escorted from his Cantonement Road house to Duxton Hill. Below is an excerpt from the cross examination of THAM KENG YAN as to what transpired:
Q: Now, will you tell the court what happened when your father was brought to the Duxton Hill house?
A: When my father was brought back, we were all herded upstairs, but we don't know what really happened, but we could hear my father being beaten. We could hear his cries from upstairs.
Q: When did you next see your father?
A: After my father was beaten I was called downstairs by one of the interpreters and I saw my father lying on the floor. His face was swollen and black and blue. I could hardly recognize him. I was asked again by Sugimoto where the radio set was. I told him I don't know and he ducked me in a big basin of water.
Q: Will you please repeat what you just said?
A: When Sugimoto asked me where the radio set was I could not tell him, and he started ducking me in the basin of water with my legs in the air. This was done by two persons, Sugimoto and the interpreter. ...When they took me out I could hardly stand, and they ducked me a second time.
Q: Did anything happen to your father at that time?
A: Yes Sir. After I was ducked, they took my father and started ducking him in the same way. ...I could see my father's head inside the basin.
Q: He was twice ducked?
A: Yes Sir.
[Omitted: Section related to establishing who did the ducking and how long this went on for.]
Q: What happened to your father after it was over?
A: After my father was ducked, they approached me to ask my father to confess where the set was. They left me with him for a few minutes and I approached him. My father had to confess where it was.
Q: How did your father eventually leave you?
A: He was asked to dress up. After having brought them to the house where the radio was kept -- I do not know where it is (the location of the radio) -- but somewhere in Cantonement Road -- they brought him home, asked him to dress up and took him away.
Two days later, THAM KENG YAN was also arrested and brought to the Kempeitai HQ at the YMCA. He was interned in a cell near his father's. THAM KENG YAN testifies that he heard his father coughing and groaning, saw him being taken out of his cell for questioning on several occasions, and also once saw Myasaki enter his father's cell and heard Myasaki scolding his father for groaning, followed by sounds of a beating. Under cross-examination by the defending officer, THAM KENG YAN admitted that he could not say with certainty who had tortured his father as he did not witness the acts himself. He could only definitively identify the perpetrators who had ill-treated him and his father on the day his father was arrested. Further, he confirmed that his father had indeed been found to be in possession of a wireless radio. [According to Sugimoto, following an order from the 25th Army HQ in August 1942, civilians were prohibited from owning wireless radios.] On the 6 November 1943, THAM KENG YAN was taken from his cell by several Kempei to identify his father's body -- "He was very thin when I saw his body. I could see his bones jutting out and marks on his thigh." He was issued with his father's death certificate which listed the cause of death as "general debility with enteritis." THAM KENG YAN was released thereafter and told "...your father's case is over and you are free now."
Witness Mary Tan (@ Chan Yoke Cheng), 51, wife of THAM YING HONG and a registered midwife, testified that on 21 October 1943 around 4am, Kobayashi Takashi, along with six others arrived at their home at Cantonement Road:
"At first I heard someone kicking the door of my house. I came from upstairs and went to the hall. On reaching the hall I saw someone pointing two pistols through the window. Our windows was not locked but had iron bars... I opened the door."
Mary claimed that when Kobayashi entered the house, he asked, 'Do you know anyone with the name of Chan?' THAM YING HONG told Kobayashi that there was no such person there and showed their family registration card to the MP who threw it on the floor. Kobayashi ordered two men to search the house. When they went upstairs, Mary followed them. "These two men ransacked everything in my room, throwing clothing and other articles about, and in one of my almeirahs (cupboard) they found a camera in which I had five hundred dollars, Straits Currency, which the man took away. They also took away a pair of binoculars." Not long after, a maid servant working at Duxton Hill was escorted to their house and "she pointed out that my husband was the man Accused No. 2 (Kobayashi) was looking for. Then Accused No. 2 grasped my husband's chest by his hand and went on punishing him. I then asked my daughter to kneel down to beg accused not to do that. Accused gave a kick on the shoulder of my daughter while she was in the kneeling position. When Accused No. 2 saw my daughter and myself crying he took my husband into a room. In the room I heard the cries of my husband. When my husband came out of the room his both hands were tied at the back. My husband was taken to a car outside."
An hour later, THAM YING HONG was brought back to the house. Mary described his condition: "I saw my husband's face was blue sir. His pyjamas were torn and I could see black marks on his chest... My husband tried to persuade me not to worry in spite of his condition. I asked him if he felt pain, and he told me not to worry. Then he came to the back of the house to get a cup of hot water and after he drank he was taken away." A week later, Mary was arrested and taken to YMCA where she was held for two days. She claimed she was made to kneel down and kicked by a Japanese officer who accused her of having Europeans in their home, a charge she denied. "During the two days at the YMCA I could hear my husband vomiting. I could see my husband from the place where I was kept. I saw him groaning on the floor." The next time she saw her husband was when his body was returned to the Duxton Hill residence on 6 November 1943. [At this point, Mary broke down and the court was adjourned for a few minutes.]
Under cross-examination by the defending officer, Mary admitted that she did not recognize Sugimoto or Myasaki. Apart from what she had witnessed at their home, she could not testify to Kobayashi beating or torturing her husband while in custody.
Witness Tham Kim Guan, 21, daughter of THAM YING HONG testified that she lived at 64 Cantonement Road and was present during the arrest of her father. She could only identify Kobayashi as the man who had ill-treated her father at the time of arrest. However, she could not speak to what happened to THAM YING HONG when he was in custody and she was not present to identify her father's body upon his death.
Notes
- It was not established in court whether THAM YING HONG had indeed participated in any anti-Japanese subversive activity.
- The trial transcript of Mary Tan's testimony is unusual in that her emotional state was captured in the court notes. I have yet to come across another case in which a court was adjourned to allow a distraught witness to gather him/herself, neither have I encountered a case whereby the witness was thanked and praised for providing testimony. ["Will you thank the witness for the clear and courageous way in which she has given her evidence, and she may stand down."] Is this because few witnesses/victims were as distraught? Is it because Mary, unlike many witnesses, expressed herself well and was quite descriptive in her answers, which elicited sympathy from the court members?
- Mary Tan claimed that her daughter was kicked in the shoulder when she begged for the release of her father on her knees. Tham Kim Guan, her daughter, stated that she was standing when she pleaded on behalf of her father and was kicked on the "left hand side of my abdomen." Why the discrepancy? While this did not materially alter the various witnesses' accounting of what occurred during THAM YING HONG's arrest, it does raise the question whether Mary Tan had heightened her narrative during her court testimony.
- Colonel Arthur Jordon, a medical practitioner with nine years experience, was cross-examined to shed light on whether the ill-treatment THAM YING HONG had received could have led to his death, and also for his expert opinion on the cause of death as stated in the death certificate. Jordon testified that the condition of enteritis could not have been caused by ill-treatment as enteritis was an infection and "it would be necessary for the organism to be brought into the system, usually in some particle of food or drink before enteritis would occur." Under cross-examination by the defending officer, Jordon stated that it was possible for enteritis to be an existing condition without it being apparent, and that it was also possible that the condition could have become acute, exacerbated by being subjected to poor prison conditions, and further that enteritis, if accompanied by dysentery, could potentially lead to fatality in a short span. (THAM YING HONG died after three weeks in custody.)
- The court found both men guilty but on lesser charges (guilty with exceptions). I.e. while Sugitomo and Kobayashi were found guilty of ill-treatment, there was insufficient evidence that their ill-treatment of THAM YING HONG had directly influenced his death.
Defendants' Testimonies and Defence
1) Sergeant Major Sugimoto Heikichi (杉本矢吉)
According to Sugimoto, the Singapore Kempeitai HQ had three departments/sections. The commanding officer was Lt. Col. Sumida. His deputy was Lt. Kodama. Section 1 was involved with military policing and jurisdiction. Sugimoto was attached to Section 2 headed by Warrant Officer Sakamoto. Above him was a staff sergeant and there were 13 to 14 personnel in his section. He claimed "my duties were to collect information" and that this 'Information Section' "concerned itself with the search for spies, communists and any element which was against the Japanese Army." Section 2 was primarily concerned with anti-Japanese activities among the Chinese segment of the population, He also claimed that his section did not participate in interrogations and that these were undertaken by personnel from Section 3 led by Warrant Officer Uyeno. (At another time, during cross-examination, Sugimoto also claimed that Section 3 was "concerned with the Caucasian race - White People - to study their movements and their tendencies," which contradicted his earlier assertion that Section 3 was involved with interrogations of all suspects.)
Sugimoto stated that he had been directly involved in interrogations with "suspected communists" only on two occasions in 1945. Sugimoto's testimony during cross-examination was at times contradictory. He claimed, for example, that possession of a wireless set was outlawed, but that it was not a serious offence. Yet, he also testified to the scale of the two-day operations across the island to arrest multiple suspects, among them THAM YING HONG. Further, though he claims he was not usually involved in interrogations, he had made the unilateral decision, in the absence of his commanding officer, to interrogate THAM YING HONG. However, while Sugimoto admitted to ducking THAM YING HONG in a tub of water three times, he was adamant that he had not beaten the suspect. After arresting him and escorting him to the Kempeitai HQ, he had handed him over to Staff Sergeant Shin, and had nothing else to do with the prisoner after that.
2) Sergeant Kobayashi Takashi (小林隆)
Kobyashi testified that he had been among the arresting party at the Cantonment Road house. However, he was only involved in assembling the family members on the ground floor and guarding them along with two other MPs. After about an hour, he was ordered to join the other group at the Duxton Hill property. There, he witnessed "from the back entrance" of the property, Sugimoto and THAM YING HONG "near the bath house." He engaged in a search of the upper floor of property. After about half an hour later, when he returned to the ground floor, he observed that they were still in the back of the house. However, he did not see or hear the suspect being beaten or tortured, and he did not overhear what was being said. All in all, he had spent about 2 hours at the Duxton Hill property but denied witness testimonies placing him with Sugimoto and the suspect in the back of the house. He testified seeing THAM KENG YAN at the back of the house where "the son was telling something to his father, something sort of appealing" (as in pleading). He denied that Tham Kim Guan had begged him for mercy.
Kobayashi also testified that Mary Tan had "looked worried" and had approached him with clothes for her husband in her hands; "...she spoke to me in Chinese, but I understood she wanted me to take this clothes to the man." When asked why he thought she was worried, Kobayashi answered, "It was because her husband was wet I think. I do not know what other reason there could be Sir... She was just worried about the investigation that was going on." When the arresting party, in three cars, returned to HQ, Kobayashi observed THAM YING HONG being taken into the building. When asked whether the prisoner looked "quite normal", Kobayashi stated: "I don't think there was anything peculiar Sir, although he looked slightly dejected." Kobayashi denied that he had ever assaulted any civilians in his care and that this was "outside of my duties." Kobayashi claimed that an earlier testimony taken from him had been mistranslated. He also admitted that he had discussed the case with Sugimoto and Myasaki recently, prior to the trial, but denied that they had compared notes before giving evidence so as to "make what we knew agree with each other." Kobayashi claimed that according to military regulations, the use of force against an accused or prisoner was forbidden.
3) Myasaki Kazuo (Civilian interpreter) (宮崎和夫)
Myasaki was an interpreter at the Kempeitai HQ. He was born in Telok Anson, Perak state to a Japanese mother and a Malay father and was a naturalised Japanese citizen. He claimed to not a little Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew and Hainanese (Chinese dialects) but was employed only as a Malay language interpreter.
He denied being with Sugimoto and Kobayashi during the arrest of THAM YING HONG. In his testimony, Myasaki stated that there were 14 to 15 interpreters employed at the HQ, but over those two days, as there were mass arrests, "some people who knew English and even Chinese were employed from the Propaganda Department at the Cathay Building to give a helping hand." He testified that he had seen or heard of cases at the HQ where inmates were beaten up but not tortured. That an interpreter may slap or hit a prisoner but only when instructed by a MP to do so. He also confirmed that there were 5 cells in the building, each usually held between 5 to 6 people; and that interpreters did not question inmates in these cells, but only when they were taken to an interrogation room. He denied having been involved in the interrogation of THAM YING HONG when he was held there. Myasaki was acquitted.
|
DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE ONLINE FROM INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)
Charge Sheet: www.legal-tools.org/doc/e0341a/pdf/ Trial Report: www.legal-tools.org/doc/3bb50e/pdf/ Reference - proceedings of trial: www.legal-tools.org/doc/cc44a1/pdf/ Judgement: www.legal-tools.org/doc/0fe8ec/pdf/ CONTACT MADE WITH ARTHUR'S GREAT GRANDSON, IAN
Ian sent me some photos of Arthur and Kenneth, which you can view here |
|