The Pittsburgh Press (February 11, 1946)
Homma sentenced to firing squad
U.S. high court won’t intervene
MANILA (UP) – Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, conqueror of Bataan and Corregidor, was convicted by a U.S. military commission today of permitting his troops to commit atrocities and was sentenced to be “shot to death with musketry.”
The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to intervene in Homma’s trial, turning down petitions by the general’s attorneys that the case be removed from the jurisdiction of the military court.
The Manila verdict held Homma directly responsible for 80,735 killings and tortures including those on the Bataan death march and in the bombing of Manila after it was declared an open city, December 26, 1941.
He was acquitted of a charge in a second indictment that he refused to grant quarter to American troops in Manila Bay when Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright offered to surrender May 6, 1942.
Homma glanced about the courtroom and then thanked the commission for the “courteous ways of the people who conducted the trial.” He was escorted immediately back to prison.
The conviction and sentence, as in the case of Lt. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, who previously was sentenced to death by hanging for war crimes in the Philippines, are subject to review by Lt. Gen. W. D. Styer, commander of Western Pacific forces.
If Gen. Styer concurs in the death penalty he must pass the case on to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme Allied commander, for final approval.