Salt Lake Telegram | 1945-11-17 | Page 2 | Nips Destroyed All Records of Prisoners

Nips Destroyed MI An Records o Of Prisoners TOKYO Nov 17 UP The UP-Tho Tho Japanese Jap- Jap nese anese military ordered prisoner of war records burned the day Emperor Em- Em eror Hirohito commanded the naion nation nation na- na tion ion to lay down its arms arms Gen MacArthurs MacArthur's headquarters disclosed dis die closed Saturday Under allied prompting the Japan Japanese e have been able to offer only the most vague and incomplete lete explanations of the action Japans Japan's liaison office said the destruction occurred when the Nipponese were psychologically in n a state of utter confusion if not panic stricken The actual orders to burn highly highly high high- ly y important documents were Issued issued Is- Is sued orally last Aug 15 from the ministry of war office at a liaison conference at The missing missing miss- miss ing ng records may concern as many manyas as persons many still not traced raced said Lt N. N F. F Churchill Toledo 0 O. of ot the tho recovered personnel personnel per- per onnel office Churchill and 25 men are trying to o trace more than 1500 missing American B 29 airmen Lt Gen Hiroshi Tamura then director of the prisoner of war in information information information in- in formation bureau and chief of the prisoner of war var administration bureau later Issued specific or or- ders Japanese officials acknowledged acknowledged acknowledged edged Saturday that many documents documents documents docu docu- ments were d des destroyed e a t I r a 0 y e c d which should not have been