The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, May 15, 1945, Page 1

[ THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE VOL. LXV., NO. 9962 “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, MAY 15, 1945 —————————————t 'WILD FIGHTING TAKES PLACE, OKINAWA " Truman Discusses International Situation . > PRESIDENT GIVES OUT STATEMENT Expresses ‘His View on Many Subjeds Includ- ing Domestic Affairs WASHINGTON, May 15 — The international situation *took the spotlight at President Truman's news conference today. On international subjects, Truman: 1—Said he hopes to meet soon Mr. with Prime Minister Churchill and | Premier Stalin. 2—Announced he favgred l’e]:nanlf of -the Johnson Act placing re- strictions on private loans $e coun- tries in default on World War I obligations. 3—Declared that “abgolute insur- ance against German and Japanese rearmament” is the first considera- tion in working out reparations. 4—Said he and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower were in agreement that a free press should prevajl in Ger- ! many “in a manner consistent with military security”’—a reversal of the position taken last week by Elmer Davis,” Director of the Office of War Information, who had an- nounced . that information to the Germans should be strictly con- trolled. 5—Said ‘Associate Justice Robert Jackson of the Supreme Court would - determine American policy in the handling of the Nazi High Command and other German war léaders. Jackson is chief counsel of (Continued on Page Five) The Washington| { { | | FALLS;YANKS - WIN BATILE ;Sevenlhou;ad Dead Japs! Counted in Narrow 75- Foot Defile, Luzon | By Fred Hampson (Associated Press War Correspondent) CONFERENCE ISSUES PUT INLAND ON OKINAW A_aAmerican fighting men plod inland on Okinawa island, while in the background supplies are landed for the invasion forces. | : 14} 2 lruman Jusi apiain Harry of Dizzy D" fo H ‘ Japanese propaganda dispatches W u Ieso or ar { claimed persistent attacks were ! | pressed * against two fast U. S.| BLACKENED BY ATTACK Third LargesTEity of Japan in Ruins-Smoke Rises More than 3 Miles GUAM, May 15—Newly streiches of Japan's third scarred | largest | eity, burned and blackened by more | § than a million jellied gasoline fire | bombs, testified today to the power of yesterday’s unprecedented raid on Nagoya by 500 Superforts. | Huge columns of black smoke | with dense clouds prevented accur- | ate observation of the full extent of damage from the greatest of the multiple blows rained on Japan | by Army, Navy and Marine airmen. | Perfect Bombing | Returning pilots described it as “perfect bombing.” Two B-29's were shot down cver the target, and a| third lost near Iwo Jima, but its| 1crew pacachuted and was picked up | There is no American confirma- | tion of Tokyo reports of raids on southern Japanese airdromes by {500 carrier planes Sunday and 500 | Monday. Admiral Chester W.Nimitz | |did announce onme major U. S.! warghip in a fast carrier task force was damaged by Japanese:.aerial’ attacks. carrier forces which shot the pmunsi |over Kyushu, Shikoku and southern | | Honshu Islands. | WASHINGTON, May 15.—"Buddy, | Jap Planes Shot Down | he may be President Truman of the| A total of 46 attacking Nipponese | United States to you and millions of | planes were shot down Sunday | others around the world, but to the nhight and Monday morning as they | skinners and cannoneers of ‘Dizzy|attacked the carrier force and fleet D, he still is and always Will be|units off Okinawa, where two light | ‘Captain Harry’.” | By Jack Stinnett NAGOYAIS Truman Receives First Poppy BiG DRIVE FOR SHURI IS STARTED Yonabaru Airfield on Oki- nawa Captured - Fight- ingin Northern Naha By Leif Erickson (Associated Press War Correspondent) BULLETIN—GUAM, May 15.— Some of the wildest fighting of the | whole Pacific War is taking place on the eastern end and center of the four-mile line on Okinawa. | American soldiers and Marines |are battling to widen their wedge linto the enemy defenses guarding the Shuri Fortress in the center. |It is touch and go with the Japs | making repeated suicide counter- |attacks. Equally 1lerce fighting is { ;tnkmg place in the outskirts of the Five-year-old Margaret Ann Forde, daughter of a disabled ex-sérvice man, (left), pins, the first Buddy Poppy of the 1945 Buddy Poppy Sale on the lapel of President Harry S. Truman at the White House in Washington. Margaret Ann is from Eaton Rapids, Mich. (AP Wire- photo) Victories of REPORT ON city of Naha where the Marines jrnce the costly task of getting across | Asato River. ‘The battle for the Chinese port |of Foochow has taken a savage turn. | Instead of abandoning the city, |as some thought the Japanese were | deing, the enemy now is putting up |a terrific battle in the streets. The Chungking High Command says both sides are suffering heavy cas- | ualties. o N Gy ¥ ! GUAM, May 15—American forces jcaptured the strongly - defended Yonabaru Airfield yesterday and | squared away today for the final drive on Okinawa’s inner Shuri defense area. | Yonabaru and Conical Hill, chief | remaining Japanese observation | point, fell to Maj. Gen. James L. | Bradley’s Ninety-Sixth Infantry Di- | vision. i Two rifle companies which gained |its 480-foot summit late Sunday, held tenaciously to their position | despite Japanese counter-attacks. ~ Merry-Go-Round By DREW PEARSON (Lt. Col. Robert 8. Alien now on active setvico wit the Army.' | Yesterday, the 383rd Regiment of the Ninety-8ixth Division completed the hill's capture and paved the way for the mile-and-a-half gain to Yonabaru, fourth airfield to fall MANILA, May 15—Bloody Balete |Pass fell to Americans of the | Twenty-Fifth and Thirty-Seventh | | Divisions Sunday after weeks of | bitter fighting, Gen. Douglas Mz newspaperman and chronicler (for| sweeping across the China Sea. | !U. 8. Fleet units were damaged. | ‘ | That's Eddie Meisburger talking.| Eleven more enemy aircraft were ! e rm re | Eddie is known these days as a|brought down by Marine Corsairs \ AN the Veterans of Foreign Wars mag-| B-29 spokesmen anticipated heavy | { | azine) of the exploits of “Captain|casualties from the Nagoya raid,! e a e o ay‘ £ WASHINGTON—While the fami- | lies and friends of 'G.I's in the] European Theatre are worrying| about who will come home and who | will go on to the Pacific, Gen.| Marshall is worrying about a simi- | lar problem in regard to the .of- ficers now in Europe. Marshall explained this problem recently at| a secret meeting of the Senate Military Affairs Committee. The trouble is that top many high-ranking officers whq have been in on the job of knocking out Germany are demanding that they be sent to the Pacific. They! don't want to stop fighting. While most of these men are officers of the regular Army and of very high | rank, a number of reservists and newly commissioned men are also anxious to get to the Pacific. Of- ficers who have had behind-the-! lines jobs in supply, communica- tions and other fields in France are especially anxious to get combat agsignments against the Japs. While Marshall is tickled by their attitude, it is adding to his already huge headache regarding re-deployment of forces in the European Theatre. The Chief of Staff told Senators that a number of top-rank of- ficers have declared their willing- ness to accept reduction in rank in Arthur announced today. Dough-| boys were fighting down the 30»1 mile mountain road leading to the extensive Cagayan Valley of north- ern Luzon, a Japanese stronghold. Yanks counted 7,000 enemy dead‘ in the narrow 75-foot defile be-| tween towering mountains, Asao-; ciated Press Correspondent James | Hutcheson reported from the field. | The toll is expected to mount to 120,000 when Japanese dead sealed! in the network of caves interlacing | the pass walls are counted. | “Sobering Losses” | The enemy exacted “sobering Charles L. Mullins, Jr., reported. The- Twenty-Fifth and Thirty- Seventh were driving toward Sam,a' Fe and juncture with the Tmrty-‘ Second Division, pushing along thel Villa Verde Trail from the west.| They were two miles apart. 1 East of Manila, the Forty-Third| Division, preparing for the tmall supplies one-third of water. On Mindanao, Japanese fiercely resisted the Yank drive near Davao | City, between the Talomo Davao Rivers. Americans hurled | back six Banzai charges in company strength Saturday and Sunday. The Thirty-First Division liqui- i order to go to the Pacific. He! { named colorful “Blood and Guts” Patton—now a four-star general— as one of those who have been most | insistent about being reassigned to combat work. Patton told Marshall when they met in Europe several! weeks ago that he would be willing to “lose a good deal of rank” if he could only be kept in the war. PR REPUBLICANS MEET SECRETLY AFL President Bill Green was the speaker when the “78-79 Club” (first and second term Republican Congressmen) held its last meeting. Green didn’t say anything of great importance, but — good politician that he is—he made an excellent impression. Only time the AFL President " (Continued on Page Four) | Mindanao. dated a reinforced company of by- passed Japanese between Kibawe land Maramag in north central Sixty miles up Sayre Highway, near the north coast, the Fortieth Division consolidated the captured Del Monte air center. Guerrilla forces seized Cagayan | Port, bringing the entire north |coast under American control. ' The three divisions are fighting |to bisect Mindanao and break up an estimated 50,000 Japanese troops. e HEINTZLEMAN OUT | B. Frank Heintzleman, Regional | Forester for Alaska, flew south from here today to spend two weeks in the Pacific Northwest further- ing postwar plans for forest de- velopment. He will confer with in- terested persons in Seattle, Ta- coma and Portland Delegates Keep Ears Tun- ed fo Moscow on Zone Defense, Trusteeship By John M. Hightower (Associated Press Diplomatic News Editor) SAN FRANCISCO, May 15— Secretary of State Stettinius propos- ed today that drafting of an inter- national bill of rights based on the four freedoms become the first task of a new world organization of United Nations. At a news conference, the leader . jixoq losses” on our troops, Maj. Gen. Of the American delegation declaredj g that the issue of human rights may well be the most important raised Truman,a in the San Francisco conference. Explaining that the Big Four had agreed that the enumeration of individual and collective human rights could not be attempted at this conference, Stettinius said a der a social and economic council assault, tightened its -ring around | o o 1 3iaet o code which could be systems of law.” SAN FRANCISCO, May x5~i°“ a few of their buddies and start-|south as Arkansas and northern | telligence officers are leading an and | ynited Nations officials looked to|ed @ miniature riot that sent four|gentucky. | Moscow today for word that may hasten final agreement among the “Big Five” powers on two of the most critical issues thus far met in charting a world security organiza- tion. Russia, it developed, holds the key to settlement of both the interna- tional trusteeship and the regional defense system questions. Up To Kremlin Ambassador Andrei Gromyko, who succeeded Foreign Commissar Molotov as chief Russian delegate to the United Nations Conference, has referred proposals on both of these to the Kremlin, Officials hope that replies on both of these will be received in a day or so. The United 'States and Britain have ironed out virtually all of their differences on both issues and France and China were reported in substantial agreement with them. (Continued on Page Thiee) Commission on Human Rights” un- ;W 11!. 1918, at Coetguedon, France. Ed- | states. The Weather Bureau re-|Germans brought to 3,030,000 the { Japanese near Ipo Dam, wk}:c}! accepted by member nations and!dle remembers that it was a rm‘m' p_orted a "brgad band of precipita- |total killed or captured by the Red Manil 2’s | made “an integral part of their own night and some Qf lk}e boys Who|tion” stretching from Colorado and|Army since it launched its offensive (had been whooping it up came| Wyoming northeastward to the New | january 12, Moscow said. {for repairs and the officer of the|ine brunt of the post-season SNOW.|purg area of Germany, a dispatch - g ing, ! & |wreckage and, instead of storming,|,nq gt Cripple Creek, high in the the German forces on the Channel been “Captain Harry” to the men| Harry” in World War I, but from|directed at a densely populated ' the survivors of Capt. Harry S.|nine-square-mile area in the nur-‘ Truman’s Battery D, 129th Field Ar-jlhern section of the city. tillery 35th Division, he generally, As the great parade of Super-| gets the greeting: “Hi-ya, Sarge.”|forts loosed 3,500 tons of incendi- As in the case with most nick- aries on the area, airmen said names, no one seems quite certain|«the entire city was covered by | where the outfit picked up the|smoke” with some columns rising| “Dizzy D". The battery was made pore than three miles up mostly of boys recruited in the s i Kansas City area immediatly after| the outbreak of the war. There MID MAY STORM | | | were some Schmidts, Higginbothams and such in the battery, but accord- ing to Meisburger, they were most- (By Associated Press) Winter made a belated swing at western states today, scattering ly Murphys, Caseys, Donnellys nnd‘ veteran of the Mexican border campaign, already was an |officer in the 129th—a dark-haired, snow and cold rains and worrying | pield Marshal Ferdinand Schoernor bespecatled young man, with a high-| farmers with threats of water GI haircut. His wide mouth | damaging frost. and sparkling eyes could be firm, but| Touched off by a mass of cold there always was a hint that they air wafted down from Cnnada} ould rather curl into a grin. east of the mountains, the mid- Capt. Truman took over on July May storm spread into the plains| crop- | clomping in long after taps, stepped England States, with storms as far of the “Dizzy D’s” to the infirmary' golorado seemed to be getting | day after Capt. Truman. Six inches were reported at Ruxton ‘The new captain looked over the Park, on the slope of Pikes Peak, said quietly: “Men, we have a lot of | pooiee work to do in a short time. You'll it | Treaty Abrogation e aptan rurry” o e Announced by Japan called his non-commissioned offi-| ‘ |cers together, explained that he had| MOSCOW, May 15—Foreign Com- | .enough to do with training the|migear Vyacheslav Molotov has re- | battery and working over firing|iymeq from the United Nations problems and that it was up O/ geonference in San Francisco. The {them to keep order by example.| yniteq States crew of Molotov's muscle or both. | special plane immediately went In the field, Truman ate with his|gope w000 i the Russian capital |men, slept in the mud with them | ight-Boeing in' ¢ 90 3 P when there was time for sleep, stuck DANIELS IN JUNEAU ;todhls obscr\;anon postvun‘dvr l,"IT‘ . J. Daniels, of San Pedro, and tossed off such rapid fire cal") gaygarniy “has arrived in Juneau| ineed all the rest you can get. Now get to bed. We'll see about this in’ the morning.” | From that night to this, he has " (Continued on Page str) | Hotel. 11,230,000 prisoners culations of accurate firing md”'f‘md B realstered st the Loyl Millions on Enemy Troops Nazis Perfected Organized Killed or Captured- | Crime Against Civiliza- “Man Hunt Continues fion and Humanity . (By Asse WASHINGTON, May 15 — A Moscow announced today mmiC()ngressunml Mission reported to- the Red Army slew or captured!day its inspection of German con- 12,770,000 enemy troops in almosy centration camps forced the con- four years of war on the Eastern clusion the Nazis carried out a Front and had taken more than “calculated and diabolical program since Germany of planned torture and extermina- unconditional surrender. e i The announcement did not say _The mission, composed of six whether the Russians had captured Senators and six Members of the House of Representatives, flew to Europe April 22 and spent most of a fortnight looking over the no- torious camps at Dachau, Buchen- 'wald and Nordhausen, Germany. Organized Crime In their report, the group termed the Nazi program of starvation, torture and unhonored death for slave laborers and political prison- ers “no less than organized crime | against civilization and humanity.” “Those who were responsible should have meted out to them swift, certain and adequate punish- ment,” the report advocated In view, however, of the ence of the Allled War Crimes Commission, the committee said it did not believe any additional agency need be created. Shocking Story In general, it recounted the same shocking story of calculated misery and degradation made familiar by scores of articles from the scene. Treating in detail on the estab- et R | pie"e lava' 'o |lishment at Buchenwald, the law- "makvvra said ’ Face Trial, France “Pictures and descriptions of the PARIS, May 15 or Col. Gen. Otto Woehler, com- manders of troops in Czechoslo- vakia and northern Austr who fought on after Germany's sur- render. | Yesterday's 170,000 roundup of British Security Police and in-| intensive search for Gestapo Chiet Heinrich Himmler in the Flens- from Flensburg said. exiate The unconditional surrender of Islands yielded to the Allies large quantities of arms and equipment, | including 15-inch coastal batteries, field pieces, anti-aircraft weapons and several small vessels. conditions at this camp cannot ade- quately portray what we saw there, and it is only when the stench of The Paris radio| the camp is smelled that anyone says that Pierre Laval will go back |can have a complete appreciation of | to France within a few days on a/the depths of degradation to which ! British warship to face trial as a|ihe German Nazi Government and war criminal. The former Vichy those responsible for it . . . had Government Chief was interned gropped in their treatment of those in Spain after his arrival aboard|._ TN a German plane, | (Continued on Page Sir) |to the Americans in the Okinawa campaign, Fighting At Naha Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Lemuel Shepherd Jr.’s Sixth Marine Divi- sion was fighting in northern Naha, Okinawa’s capital city, which has | been leveled by weektn:)! Naval gunfire and artillery. e Yanks still have to cross the Asato River to reach the main part of Naha. Looking acress the muddy Asato Estuary, Commanding Officer Col. ' Merlin F. Schneider, of the Twenty- Second Marine Regiment, said: “We'll take her, but the cost may be high.” Tanks, Planes Used | Tanks and planes are being used to supply American troops in the rugged center where enemy ar- |tillery and wild terrain are ham- pering truck lines to the bloody | front. Since the first wave of Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner's Tenth |Army hit Okinawa's beaches, April 1, Yanks have captured or de- stroyed 386 enemy guns of 70 millimeter calibre or larger. ‘One Jap Official - Says Japanese Are Not All-ouf for War | SAN FRANCISCO, May 15 — The President of the Political Associa- tion of Great Japan has come up with an explanation why the war is going against the Japs. | The head of the political or- | ganization, Gen. Jiro Minami, comes {right out and says that Japan's all-out might is actually not only {far from being all-out but cannot {even be considered fair. Gen. Minami's statement broadcast by the Tokyo radio. — - LANDRE ARRIVES was Roy Landre, of Anchorage, has arrived in Juneau and is a guest at the Gastineau Hotel.