The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, May 26, 1945, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL, THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” JUNEAU, ALASKA, SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1945 PRICE TEN CENTS — - | TOKYO LITERALLY SCORCHED TO GROUND Pacific Fleet VOL. LXV., NO. 9972 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS Japanese Suicide Units Attack This Wasa JapAirfield on AIR BATTLE IS FOUGHT ATOKINAWA Eleven Ligfit U. s Ships Damaged-Nip Squad Lands on Airfield GUAM, May 26.—A strong Japa- | nese air fleet, including the strangest | suicide attackers of the war, dam- aged 11 light units of the P t of 111 Nipponese aircraft destroyed in a blistering 18-hour Okinawa battle. The Japanese made their first at- tempt to land planes loaded with grenade-armed “Giretsu” troops for | suicide assaults on parked aircraft and airfield installations. A few of these suicide volunteers managed to set some U. S. planes afire before | they were cut down at the Yontan | airfield, near the original invasion | beaches, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz reported this heaviest counterblow in weeks today as Marines drove tanks| through the mined streets of Naha, | Okinawa’s shabtered capital, and ar- tillery pounded the half-encircled | fortress city of Shuri. Mud and rain | hampered ground operations. Nimitz announced overall Amer- jcan casualties of 35,116, including ' 9,602 dead, for the Army, Marine Corps and Navy since the Okinawa campaign began March 18 with pre- | liminary carrier sweeps. Japanese dead in ground actions alone were listed nine days ago at 48,103. i Destruction of 111 Japanese planes in the fiery aerial engagement at' Okinawa brought to 4,247 the stag- gering number of enemy aircraft! wiped out to date in the Ryukyu invasion. This figure includes 518 destroyed by Superfortresses. | | (Continued on Page Five) The VW;;f:ingIon‘ Merry - Go - Round By DREW PEARSCN i (Lt. Col. Robert 5. Alien now on setive | service witn the Army.® | | WASHINGTON — Rural hospitals and health centers can look for a major share of the hundreds of millions of dollars of medical equipment to be released by the Army and Navy. A policy has finally been worked out at the Surplus Property Board to . assure release of this material for public ! health use, first in areas that have no existing facilities; second inyersy remaining in the conference from gircraft plants in a dozen or areas which have insufficient fa-|js that between the small and great g, cities by the close of the year. cilities. So great is the need of rural and small-town hospitals and clinics that there will be little equipment left for replacement. This policy was achieved only after a long and bitter dispute be- | tween the Surplus Property Board and Dr. Morris Fishbein, Editor of the Journal of the American Medi- time that it could not be used to cal Association. Fishbein, in whose Journal advertise the largest makers of medical equipment, had urged that this vast volume of surplus material not be released at once. Instead, he wanted it stored and released gradually in small quanti- ties in order not.to upset the market for manufacturers of medi- cal goods. In addition, Fishbein in- sisted that huge quantities of cer- tain supplies, such as bandages, could not be used because they differed somewhat from accepted standard sizes. However, in'a lengthy- session at the office of U. S. Surgeon Gen- eral Thomas Parran, Dr. Fishbein finally ' was won over and even agreed to serve on the overall board which will recommend on the | disposal of medical supplies. Three types of equipment will be distributed—public health supplies, surgical and therapeutic' instru- ments, and pharmaceuticals. A board of public officials and phy- sicians headed by Dr. Parran will recommend their allocation to Federal Security Chairman Paul McNutt, who will work through the Surplus Property Board. Actual al- (Continued on Page Four) | (Associated Press Diplomatic News Editor) Okinawa The red ball insignia of the Jap air force is shown here definitely grounded after American forces uncorked the final explo ARM 10 FOLLOW CONFERENCE Land, Sea and Air Forces to Safeguard Peace- Veto-voting Issue By John M. Hightower | | | | SAN FRANCISCO, May 26.—The probability of a United Nations Arms Conference following close on the defeat of Japan emerged today from the plans for future world se- curity now being put into formal shape here. These plans proviae both for the maintenance of land, sea and air forces large enough to safeguard peace and for the regulated reduc- tion cf armaments to relieve the victorious nations of this war of the heavy burden they have carried for the past several years. Committee actions in the United Nations conference to date indicate substantial agreement among the 49‘ nations’ represented here on these!' twin objectives. In fact, about the only contro-| nations over the authority to be! exercised in the projected world| security council by the Big Powers. .The Big-Four are due to reach| final agreement today on a state-| ment upholding the veto-voting formula worked out early this year at Yalta, but declaring at the same prevent any nation from present-, ing to the council charges against any other nation. | 1t is expected that critics of the! | Big Power veto will carry teir fight | ito a showdown in the committes. Big-Four leaders continue to claim encugh votes to block the great variety of proposed amendments de- signed to limit their authority in the | council. The small nations suffered a de- feat last night in the conference committee planning the powers of 'a general assembly. They. backed a proposal that the assembly should have authority to require reports and explanations from the security lcouncil of its devisions. The Big | Powers opposed this and mustered a total of 16 votes against it. This held the affirmative vote to 21, short lof the two-thirds required for !apptoval. | The first step toward future regu- |lation and eventual reduction of i armaments was taken by the: Se-| | curity council committee yesterday. | It unanimously approved a pro- vigion stating that the security coun- "cil should have ‘responsibility for | fermulating plans for the establish- |ment of a system of regulation of armaments,” to be submitted to all United Nations members. § TALK "Lef the Worm Go fo ve assault on Okinawa, turning this enemy airfield into a graveyard of shattered planes. Bulldezers quickly cleared away the wreckage to ma%e room for Marine observation planes. The Worms" Is Burial Ceremony for Himmler + i CUTBACKS INMAXING | OF PLANES Army Makes Reduction in Production~Plan Bat- fle for Japan WASHINGTON, May 26. — The Army hewed off today a big chunk | of its aircraft production program.| It announced a cutback order| which will stop production of about | 17,000 planes scheduled for the next | 18 months. Among other effects the retrench- ment will: 1. Take perhaps 200,000 workers | 2. Release substantial quantities of steel and aluminum for civilian use. 3. End production of the new B- 32 bomber, not yet reported in com- bat, while heavy emphasis is placed | for the next few months on in-| creased output of the B-29 (Super- fortress). B The Army Air Forces last night said the reasons for the new cut- back are these: Curtailment of lend-lease opera- tions under which thousands of air- eraft went to Allies in the European war; different tactical and strategic requirements for the one-front war against Japan; ' with Germany’s Luftwaffe knocked out, the United States lost less planes in the closing phases of tMe battle of Europe, |planes which now may be used {against Japan. The B-32 is the second of two very heavy bombardment” planes put into production by the United States. Although details of the plane i | | ported to compare in size with the B-29, - BUTTER BOY NEW YORK-—The butter shortage |is worse than the boypower short- | age so Gristede Brothers, Inc., groc- ers, now send two boys with each delivery pushcart. One delivers, while the other mounts guard over the scarce com- have not been announced, it is re- | 13 LUENBERG, Germany, May 26.— Tlie body of Henrich Himmler wrap- {ped in a gray British army blanket, | was carted by truck into a woods | near here and dumped into & grave spaded out by three British Tom- mies. For two days the body had been left on the floor of a Luenberg Villa where the Gestapo chief ended his life with poison while undergoing ex- amination after his airest by British authorities. A senior Intelligence Officer of the British Second Army said he had been told to dispose, as he saw it, sarn near Berchtesgaden. soldier who witnessed the removal | sody by the head and feet, carried it behind the house where he died and dumped it into a one-ton truck alongside three spades. The body had not been embalmed and was clad only in a British army shirt and the army blanket he chose to drape about him when his own clothing was taken away after his arrest. The Himmler grave in the woods, a patch of pines, was not marked, for the Allies do not want the Germans to remove the body or mark the spot with some monument later. Some efforts’ were made to ob- tain a pine coffin of the type used by the Germans to bury victims of the notorious Belsen concentration camp, but none could be found. “Let the worm go to the worms”, a Tommy said. That was the only comment spok- en at the grave. BAKA BOMBS BEING USED BY JAPANESE i GUAM, May 26—At least thr rocket-propelled Baka bombs were |shot down by Superfort gunners in this morning’s 500-plane fire raid on Tokyo. This was the first def- inite report the Japanese had used Baka bombs against the B-29s. Baka bombs are launched in the jair by regular bombers. They are | piloted by a suicide flyer in a small canopy. The bomb has an explo- ' modity. sive warhead in the nose, JACK HELLENTHAL, (PIONEER ATTORNEY, DIES IN SEATTLE - Stalwart Democrat of AI-} aska Passes Away-Had Been in Poor Health . Jack Hellenthal, Alaska pioneer of | 1900 and oldest practicing attorney | in point of service in the Territory, | died yesterday morning in the Swed- ish Hospital in Seattle at the age | of 70 | j health about two weeks ago enroute to his Lake County, California, ranch but stopped over in Seattle | for medical care. Several blood transfusions were given but he fail- | ed to rally. His wife and sister, Miss ! ! Gertrude Hellenthal, were at the { Bedside : | President of the Juneau Bar sociation for the past several years land at one time Democratic Na- ‘tional Committeeman for Alaska, Mr. Hellenthal was also a pioneer member of the Elks Lodge almost { from the time of its local establish- 7 ment and served about 1903 as Ex- {alted Ruler. Born September 17, 1874, near Holland, Mich., Mr. Hellenthal at- i tended Holland schools including ‘ Hope College, completing his studies at the Univedsity of Michigan Law Sehool, and Utah, in the latter state meet- ing his wife, Miss Bertha Linsley, |whige “they were’ married: The counle cam¢« north at the turn of the century, and he established of- fices in the Hellenthal Building when it was first erected. In addi- tion to his private law practice, Mr. Hellenthal had been legal represen- tative for the Alaska Juneau and Alaska Treadwell mining companies since 1910. Except for part of one vear, he had practiced continuously in the Territory for the past 45 years. In addition to the wife, survivors are a sister and three brothers, Miss Gertrude Hellenthal, who came from her home in Chicago to ‘meet her brother in Seattle; and Theo- dore Hellenthal, supervising auditor on the Pacific Coast for the U. S. years prior to his retirement from brother’s interests for the past sev- HIiGH PRICE FOR e I JapsSurrreEring in One| New Government Faces| A Major and three Sergeants car- the bench last January 2, who has gng Filipino Guerrillas captur ried out the unceremonious burial. A been in Juneau looking after his Ipo Dam last week, for the first My, Hellenthal left here in poor | F""“ SLOWING YANKS A GROUP OF ADVANCING YANKS on Okinawa look at a Jap sprawled lifeless after he attempted to hold up the American drive toward the capital city of Naha, Just to make sure he’s dead and not up to any tricks, His first practice was in Wyoming | the Marines watch the body. U. S. Marine Corps photo. (International) ENEMY IN ISLANDS GIVINGUP Section-Others Killed at Rate of 100 Daily MANILA, May 26—A disintegrat- of the body of the Nazi Gestapo Maritime Commission; Walter Hel- ing Japanese force, encircled north- | chief, whose private currency hoard lenthal of Allegan, Mich.; and Simon east of Manila in mountains suited of approximately $1,000,000,000 was Hellenthal, U. 8. District Court for a long delaying stand, is show- discovered yesterday hidden under a Judge for the Third Division for 10 jng a disposition to surrender. When the Forty-Third Division ed time in this theatre an enemy gar- said the Sergeants took Himmler's eral months. There are no children. oo of considerable size was The body will be shipped east for y,5he4 Since then, the Doughboys, burial in the family plot at Holland, Mich,, where Mr. Hellenthal’s par- aided by the Fifth Air Force, have | that the “Caretaker Government,”| been killing Japanese at a rate of named ents and grandparents have been 46 ¢ 909 o day. Only a few sur- rendered. interred. BID FAREWELL 10 AMERICAN FLYING FORCE London Daily Express Ex- presses Affections for Fliers of U. S. LONDON, May 26 — The Daily Guerrilla Express, bidding an editorial fare- well to American fliers now depart- |line of the east coast from the ister of Airc |ing for assignments against Japan, tp up Yesterday, however, 20 Nipponese, neluding two medical office gave in a group. They indicated others would like to give up. quarter reports indicate the peak of enemy pear before the house, would “ask| 'l'csislance has been passed. Battling for a mandate to press on the although close- front Mindanao, fighting continues, BRITISH CABINET FORMED Parliament Tuesday-- Ask to Fight Japan LONDON, May 26 — The new ! government of Prime Minister Winston Churchill will face Par- | liament for the first time Tuesday | in what one political commentator said today would be “the fiercest baptism of any administration for a long time The Times of London lent sup- port to the view of some observers last night to serve until Britain’s general elections of July 5, was also Churchill's choice for his Armament Administration, should the Conservative Party re- tain its majority at the polls. fully balanced team,” the Times caid its members, when they ap- still is so close that Pfc. Harold jJapanese war to its conclusion.” Jones, Ainsworth, Neb, killed a Japanese ‘ (jammed machine-gun. who was clearing a Lincanan Airfield, the last of six nemy air bases around Davao, 1l to the Twenty-Fourth Thurs- ay. Today's communique reported the Churchill, who retained Anthony {Eden as Foreign Secretary, chose ! mainly members of his own party (o replace the 5) Labor and Liberal Ministers leaving the Government. Also there are a few from other parties, including the Liberal Maj. Gwilym Lloyd George, son of the capture of Luzon's east coast of the Jate World War I Prime Minister forces. American of the southern Bicol Penin- !towns of Irfanta and Misua by David Lloyd George, as Minister of rown, new Min- aft Production, Cabi- i net members without definite party Praising the cabinet as a “care-| FIRE BOMB SCOURAGE ON NIP CAPITAL | Palaces, Business Districts, Residential Sections Go Up in Flames GUAM, May 26—Superfortresses, jcarrying their fire bomb scourge to the heart of the enemy empire for the second time in 48 hours, by Japanese account destroyed two ipnlmcv.x, and left metropolitan Tokyo “literally scorched to the ground today.” The terrific damage spread by | the 500 B-29 raiders was indicated iby a Tokyo radio broadcast assert- ing flames “practically laid waste what was once the world’s third- largest metropolis.” “The outer palace within the Imperial Palace grounds, as well as the Omiya detached palace were destroyed by fire,” the broadcast said. B-29 crewmen who participated in the raid sald the Army and Navy Department and the Diet buildings, as well as the palacés, were probably damaged, although {none was a specific target. One returning pilot observed he would be surprised if the raid had @ liie: bun the Toky. mrosdedsy a little,” but the 0 |reported Emperor Hirohito, the Empress and Empress Dowager all | were uninjured. The Omiya Palace was the home of the Empress Dow- ager. Premier Kantao Suzuki called “an extraordinary” meeting of his cabi- net today at which he issued “a reverent statement relative to the burning of the Imperial Palace and the Omiya Palace due to enemy air raids,” a later Tokyo broadcast reported. B o) The broadcast added that the | cabinet members intended to work {for “the renovation of the admin- istration” and later conferred with sub-ministers. and cabinet members lto deliberate “upon ajr raid meas- ures relative to the present air raid damages.” ¢ : The flames, fanned by a 70-mile gale, “wrought havoc on the sprawling congi business dis- tricts and residential sections of the city,” the broadcast said. An Imperial Headquarters com- munique, issued later, placed the number of Superfortresses taking part at 250, half the actual number involved, .and claimed 47 of the raiders were shot down. All fires, the communique asserted, ‘“were mostly exunfiuuhad by dawn.” Tokyo's Ginza (government) and Marunouchi business districts were the prime targets of a 4,000-ton attack. It was the second raid in 48 hours, in which a total of 1,050 Superforts deluged 8,500 tons of fire bombs on the Japanese capital. Stung by the strike into the very |nerve center of the Empire, | Tokyo diverged from a later :I?’l‘ of damages to declare the “enemy’s inhuman atrocities” had increased the Japanese “feeling of hostility and (they) are firmly determined ito fight to the last Japanese." Returning B-29 pilots said little labout fighter interception but re- ported running into intense anti- aircraft fire. Plight Officer Steve | | | { | and Puel and Power, and the Liberal| “ | Filipino fprees thus hold a solid | National Ernest B |E: Bodolay, Clamsland, Ohio, sakt i | sounded like hail on a tih roof.” " Tokyo radio, never conservative, |claimed 44 Superfortresses were de- said today “there is a epecial af- Sula north to the central part of affiliation who were retalned in-'giroveq, fection in British hearts for the the islands. | Fortresses and Liberators of the |U. 8. Eighth Air Force.” | The editorial said that the 1942-| | 1943 controversy over the. efficacy| |of daylight bombing was not settled until the Casablanca Con- | | | ference, when air chiefs threshed late President Roosevelt. | 1“nllowed fo go ahead with the !mighty and brilliant conception of |air war mapped out for them,” the editorial said, wishing the fliers “Godspeed in their new tasks.” . — CLONY IN TOWN John Clony, of Seattle, is a guest at the Gastincau Hotel. | | >, —— Indusirial Sugar Rafioning Coming WASHINGTON, May 26 A jout the issue in the presence of | Congressional food investigator said ce Prime Minister Churchill and the|today OPA is planning a drastic curtailment of industrial sugar Then the Eighth Air Force was|which will cut manufacturers to half their 1944 supply, or less. The new reduction will be an- nounced for the third quarter of Landis will start divorce proceed-| cluded Sir James Grigg, Secretary iof ‘War. ‘The editorial reaction to the new government in the London press ! followed party lines. e CAROLE LANDIS T0 GET DIVORCE HOLLYWOOD, May 26 — Carole l . DITCHED | | ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. — When | F. M. Griswold walked into his front | yard he stared at a long, freshly- | dug diteh. | ‘Thieves, he said, had worked in ' the night to remove a hedge he had { cultivated for seven years. ——to— — i HANBRICK IN JUNEAU Carroll E. Hanbrick, of Orange, the year, effective July 1, said this ings against Maj. Thomas C. Wal- pexas, is a guest at the Hotel Jy- law-maker, who asked not to be lace after establishing residence in jeqy, named. Sugar is rationed to industrial users—bakers, candy makers and studio yesterday. They were mar- the like—in quarterly allotments, | Reno, Nev.,, within two weeks, the 'actess announced through her .ried in London in January, 1943. ACTI IN JUNEAU Dan’ Acti, of Skagway, is a guest at the Gastineau Hotel. |