,I.'~ION

( .$/iL) Office Ol~ the lI.ttormy Gez.ral# Govar rmle nt B\U'eau f or Wt.r Crilnes Inve st i1J;at iona•

. 21410/R

AFl"ID.,VIT

On title 2 6th da~r o~ r;ovember 1~47faplil.eared :Pflf~re me,

Jpier tl l.l:4m l'heodoor, IllVEJet1gati~ ~.fr iaeje a88ig~d to the

DrilllOh 01'-1'108 f or t. Irlmu I~ve8tiglOt1.olll , -hold illg Off;i.ce at •

oahli&.lI'~ • - DeI!- llsldor , a person WQ.\:l doolarad to be I

i jI

sadistic

oould

but

night

5. Ca.n ~rou give me i nfornation concerning maltreatments of

\'Ihich either you or othe~'s were the victims,a-nd to wh ioh

you wer e !l witness?

I was a prisoner of war in lI1iyata Call1p, Fuklioka 9,

Japa n, from June 1944 to October 1945. The foreman in

!!ine Uo. II ~8 s Fuch imoto, nic kname liThe Tiger". I worked I

with. amor~ others, Sailor 1st Glass keyar; Corporal, 1ie.rine s •

,jlisl::er; a Dd Jailor W I. dar ate l in a party of about five

i n "'ina lro. II. Freeman. a k ilitia Private in the L"toyal

~therlands Indies ,ormy. &.lso belo q;ea to our party. In

this party I worked in Ootober and l'o-..ember 1944. One

night. be ing o n the night shift. Fuohimoto dealt me several

,b l aws on my baok and head withbhe handle of a kakita (mine

soraper ), fo Hawed by a. number of blows with his hand on

my face • . and thereupon he threw a COUple of big rccks "1;;0

wards me . One of those hit my shins and Cf! used an abrasion.

He did this be ca use I worked too slowly to suit him.

Freeman suffered 6mrmously from this Fuchimoi;o. livery

day he wa s ma ltreated with sticks or rocks or whatevcl' the

Japa nese happened to have in h is hands. I have seen t~, is ~

myse lf on se.rer.el ocoa sions. Finally, Freeman -h!l.d a nervous r, breakdown as !l result of these actions and , about Ja nuary 1945,

he was ma de an or

by Ii few blows whic~ I suffered at the hands of' a Japanese

Corpora l be~s. ·use I ,\"a s not in my hut. Th is occurred about

20 August 1945 . He bea t me several time s on lroy body with a

wo oden samura i (drill saber) . The day before (or r:;aybe one

day later) thits Dorpo.ral, at two 0 I clock in the . afternoon,

made the whole camp fall in and e'V8rybody had t.o march past

him, whe n he rece i .ved Ii few b lows with a wooden sword f'rom

the Corporal.

There. was. no rea son for t his at a ll, and the war was

over . He, there fore, beat merely out of pure sadism. Thi s

Jap pickad espe:.oia lly on OM Pen, a Mi litia Priw.te in the

Royal Nether la.tld.s Indie s Army, who wa~ i n ohar g'e of the coo k

house. Pen suffered very much from this Corporal, who se

name I oannot give '. I co l onger remember whether he had a

niQkDalll(l . I hll.ve often, myself seen Pen being beaten up by

him , be ofl.use Pen ref used to surrender oW' food f rom Red Orol5ll

par cels to him. Usua lly he would beat with the woo den sword

which he a l ways carried. About a week after the oapftulatio~

he made t he entire Cook Rouse crew ·assuna the on-the-haruis-down

pos ition and 1faeat the.m one after aIlOther with the swo.r d. It~ ~'

was sa id thtit he boat t hem beca use b~ was dissatisfied with ~

something . I have seen this myselt . Pe.n, Jtloeg, K~"Pers (a

teaoher at the 3andoe~ High Sohool) and others were amo~

the viotims on that oo oasion.

Tillen I came to the oamp in 1~44-, t here was a Japane se

oor geant there , whose name 1 have ~orgotteD . Be was nick-

DallJEld lIL.ankpootll (~ •. N~J lIThe Gimp") . I have oi'ten soe n h im

beat our people for·.ll · sor~B of tr ivial reasons . He wa s ·

slightly l imp i ng in one leg. hence his niomllla. I be lieve

th.t he r elllained in the OliD1p until (~bout) lI1ay 1945, and he

was then repltloed. He 'was eriremely short telllpsred . I re

member quite vividly how one day in 1944, after a shakedown

3

Sargeant

unknown, who .

I

JaF

ered.

as

believe he' .was

beat often

details.

in the ·

o'clock.

carrying a'

name

wa s

a nd vias

en the

of tlle camp ·to find people who had dodged the milles, he

pic ked three people out of' the line-up of prisoners, who had

not g one to the mi~s. When these three were lined IIp. he

made towards them viith his drawn samurai and pushed each

one .of them with his bare sword. One of t hese people received

an i nj ury in t he car diac reg iO,n thro ugh the po i~t of the

sword, >l !ld he we s brought to the. hospital bleedi~ profusely.

and we s .e ttel"'.ded, to by yr. liilfma~. I saw this maltreatment

myself'. 'l' he victim, whose nll me I h: ve forgotten, l a ter

succl.Mlbed in a mille accident in Mine r:Jo. 8. '1'his was the

only fatal accide.nt · in 1.ioo Ho. 8. The victim was a reg ular

soldier in the ltoye.1 ~etherlands Indies Arroy. iipart from

this occa sion, I have seen "The Gimp" beat quite frequently •

. " hen there was a soldi er . I believe he was a

in the Japanese guard, name unknown, nickname

beat vary much. I . myself. have not been beaten by him.

can no longer give exact details of maltreatment by this

aneae '. £Ie came to the camp af ter 1. arrived. He stamm

How I remember that he was sometimes being referred to

"The Jtamnlerer".

Another Je-penese soldier of' the s uard-- I

a Corporal-""Wlls nioknamed "..>to/kman" (T.N.s "Stick Litan") • r .. He elYl8.ys carried ~ stic\c in his. hands, and he~t and wi'thotTt any r ea son. I can DO lo~er g ive the

In the winter of 1944 and 1945, I ha.ppen:ld to be .... . . .

vicinity o'f ..Cook House, in the aft&rnoon. at ·a.bout two

when a Japanese soldier vv"!l.s patrolliIig the camp ,

rifle with the bayonet fixed. A prisoner of war, whose

I ha ve forgotten. but he was a planter in Java and he

L 5ter .P ut to. wor k in the Camp farm unde!' Petty Orr ieer

cherpezael,- had gotten a light in the Cook Ko use

smoking in the hltrinea close to the Co'O k House .

4

http:elYl8.yshttp:accide.nt

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Jap discovC3red t Lis, he g a ve the prisonar of war as-t ab

T:ith his bayonat i n the broin (I believe it v:a s t he right

gro i n). it was prohibite d a t t hat t:ime to smoke. I stood

at a. dit,-(;ance of aoout eight yards. F.e "re. S bro l.i2: ht to the

doc '(;or by our people and he was i n the hosp ita l for a bout

three weeks. When he lef t the hospital, he was st i ll lirnpi r~ .

The Jap!inese referred to was about twenty-eight years of age.

small, t hin . and he wore &lasses • . According to his own story~

he via s a r eject.. d soldier. Like all other JapaneBe~ he beat

much and without r eason. I s uffered a blow at hi s ha nds

myself on one oC C8sion. loan g ive !lO mor::: details about

these ca ses of be a tings.

I hew nothing more to st at e. e;-: cept that Pen, the Militia

Frivr.te in the Roya l lie therlands Irlliies l\rmy. a planter by

occupation. who is a t p r e sent living at Haar lem (T . H.: Holland),

exact address unknown, could undoubtedly f!, ive ma ny f acts about

ev-snt s in ll iy&ta Camp. since he kept a diary. and he wa s in

that camp for t he v.hole duratio n of the war. He also knows

the names of Ill8. IV Japanese in the camp.

6. Wh", t ViliS the name or the nickname of the perpetrator of the

rr:a ltreatl7lents mentioned by you, and could you des cribe 'nem? .'" , t~

7. li'hat other persons or witnesses were there to these maltreat

ments? -

8. Ih v'6 you a nything more to state which l1Iigh'c serve in this in

ve stigetion? - -

Ver ifice tion by the Affia.nt J

I, the unde rsigned. H. " . lii l !lEo nts aforesa.id. hereby declare that

I "cElS sllDl!lonsd and interrogat e d under oath by the inberroglltor, who in

formed me t ha t my oath w

-- ." I, the unders i g ned, affiant, CI:l rtii)' that I have duly made oath

in t he prastlnCfl of the interrogat or a nd that I sigIl&d the above record

of stetelJ.ent on 2b Nov eL-,ber 1947.

/ s/ a. G. Wijmnts

The above statements were signed in my presence, a nd this reoord

has been drawn up aoourately a r.o. signed by me, the interrogator, on

28 h01."Smber 1947 a t Den Helder.

'l'he inter r ogator afores&id J

/ s/ li . T. Sp ier , 1)E-AL)

Offioe ot' the l'.ttorney General GOv0rmnent Burea u for War (;riJnes Investi ga.tions

I hereby oertify the above to be a true aDd accurate trans1a

tion, to t he best of my knowle dge ond 'b'li~~or",'=l .",ned

affidavit in Dutch, as i dent ified above.

G. J. Jo ~e jails, "Pt~ mITll., Netherlaruia Lia. ison Officer, le[;al Section.

6

TJill, s:'J!.I' 10 N

~,ecoIJept 0 l-.l·iIA, I.atherlands Liaison Officer, LJga l ;jection.

~;)

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