WAR CRIMES: Retribution

“Just after sunset, by the light of a young moon, the helpless Americans were led from their barracks. . . . When they reached the beach, their hands and feet were tied, they were blindfolded and finally ordered to face the ocean. Japanese soldiers, three platoons strong, stood six paces to the rear with rifles and machine guns. . . . Then the command was given that ended the lives of 96 Americans.”

Thus last week, in a U.S. Navy court on Kwajalein atoll, a Japanese war crime on Wake Island in October 1943 was officially detailed for the first time. The victims: U.S. civilians, most of them from western states, who had been building a Navy base when the Japs took Wake four years ago.

Just before the verdict was read, sharp-nosed Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara, who had ordered the mass murder, had a request to make of the court. He asked “that the people who planned and carried out the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan should be regarded in the same light as we.” The court ignored his plea. The sentence: death, by hanging, for Admiral Sakaibara and ten other Japanese naval officers under his command.