200 Japs commit suicide as Yanks invade Keramas
Survivors on island near Okinawa say they were told Americans would torture them
By E. G. Valens, United Press staff writer
WITH 77TH INFANTRY DIVISION, in the Ryukyus (April 1, delayed) – Fear implanted by their own authorities caused an estimated 200 Jap civilians to attempt mass suicide on Tokashiki Island in the Keramas.
Some disemboweled themselves with grenades, others hanged themselves from trees. A number of them were still living when the Yanks reached the scene, but a Jap machine-gunner cut down the first litter-bearers, He was eliminated quickly, however.
The mass suicide, the first recorded since Saipan, was discovered when one battalion prepared to bivouac for the night about three miles north of Tokashiki town. Horrible cries of pain came from a small valley almost a mile away. When the troops investigated, they found the civilians scattered about, some dead, some dying.
White flag hauled down
Cpl. Alexander Roberts, Army photographer of New York City, was one of the first to arrive. He estimated the number of Japs at more than 200.
A white surrender flag flashed momentarily from amid the group, but it was hauled down before soldiers or doctors could reach it.
First aid was given immediately to those who could be saved. Morphine was given to the others to ease their pain.
The survivors told officers that their officials said if the Americans came all the women would be tortured and the men killed.
With these fears in mind, many fathers strangled their families and then took their own lives by pressing grenades against their stomachs or by leaning into the noose of a rope tied to a tree. One old man wept when he saw how the Americans treated the women. Only a short time ago he had strangled his daughter who was wounded in the pre-invasion bombing.
The invasion of the Keramas last Monday was one of the oddest in amphibious warfare. Each of the eight islands was invaded in an independent operation under the direct control of only a captain, major or lieutenant colonel.
Seize suicide fleet
It was a lightning small-scale stepping-stone operation right under the Jap noses on Okinawa with enemy air bases in every direction – north, south, east and west.
But now all the eight islands guarding the Okinawa landing beaches, less than 20 miles away, are secure and a major portion of a secret Jap suicide boat fleet is at the bottom of the Pacific.
The Yanks seized or destroyed 290 of these 16-foot boats, which might have seriously hampered the Okinawa operation. They were discovered in caves along the shores of four of the Kerama Islands.
Special Japanese currency carried by Okinawa Yanks
U.S. troops for first time invade area heavily populated by enemy civilians
By Mac R. Johnson, United Press staff writer
ABOARD INVASION FLAGSHIP, off Okinawa (April 1, delayed) – U.S. troops set several precedents in the invasion of Okinawa today.
For the first time in the Pacific war, they carried yen – Japanese currency – and hit an area heavily populated by Jap civilians.
Before they went ashore the troops were required to exchange their U.S. dollars for yen at a rate of 10 yen to the dollar.
The invasion yen, especially designed to differentiate from the Jap yen, was declared legal tender on proclamation and the Yanks were not permitted to take any greenbacks ashore. No metal coins will be honored in the Ryukyus.
435,000 Japs on island
The invasion of Okinawa may be a guide to what is in store as the Americans move closer to Japan. the island has a population of 435,000 Japs – more than half of the entire Ryukyus – although they are different in many ways from the Japs in the homeland.
They look like Japs, but are a little shorter, stockier and dark, often with coarser features. Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., commander of the U.S. Tenth Army, describes them as the “scrubby type of Jap – if there’s anything scrubbier than a Jap.”
The Okinawans consider themselves closer to China and Chinese culture than to Japan, and the Japs consider them an inferior people.
Some several hundred of the Ryukyuans already have returned to their homes on Zamami, in the Keramas, and the Americans are following a policy of “leave ‘em alone as long as they behave.”
Naha largest town
The civilian problem on the conquered islands is being handled by a large Military Government organization under the Tenth Army civil affairs officer, Brig. Gen. William E. Crist of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
On Okinawa, most of the population is concentrated in the southern third of the island, where the largest town, Naha, with more than 65,000 persons, is located.
The rest of the island, which like the nearby islands is very unhealthy, is very mountainous and of little value. Malaria is common in this section and the water supply usually is contaminated.
There are many insects and the jungles are infested by five species of deadly snakes of the pit viper variety.