JAPANESE WAR CRIMES TEAM REPORTS PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
(The Rangoon office of the Vietnam News Agency released the following dispatch datelined Hanoi January 16.]
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The mission of the Japan Committee for Investigation of U.S. war crimes in Vietnam made public a communiqué at a press conference here this afternoon.
The communiqué , read by Lawyer Yutaka Ishijima, deputy head of the mission, runs in full as follows:
(1). This. delegation for investigation sent to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam by the Japanese Committee for Investigation of U.S. war crimes. in Vietnam, is returning today to Japan, after a 25-day inquiry (from December 21, 1966, to January 16, 1967).
(2) During this period of time, we carried out on the ‘spot investigations in many cities, in the countryside, in the. coastal fishing villages of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. We also heard many witnesses introduced by the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation and cooperated and exchanged views with the first Commission of the International Tribunal to try the war criminals initiated by Lord Bertrand Russell.
Though conclusions “from our investigations ‘must be drawn on our return after analysis and discussions by the Japanese Gommittee which comprises specialists, the evidence we have gathered or eyewitnessed clearly demonstrated that crimes of aggression. and crimes against peace and mankind have been deliberately and inhumanly perpetrated by the United States in both North and South Vietnam.
(A) Trampling underfoot the 1954 Geneva Agreements, the United States has been using. violence on a large scale to wage aggression and systematically wreck the independence, sovereignty,. territorial integrity and the right to self- determination of the Vietnamese people, with a view to imposing ,neocolonialist domination on the. whole of Vietnan.
(B) To carry out this war of aggression, the United States has been using military bases such as Okinawa in Japan and in other Asian countries, pressing U.S. satellites like South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, etc., ‘to dispatch troops in.an attempt to internationalize the war and expand aggression to Laos, Cambodia and threaten the People's Republic of China, thereby undermining not only peace in Vietnam but also seriously endangering peace in Asia and the world. ;
(C) To attain its aims of aggression, the United States has been using ‘the most savage means of mass extermination on a scale hitherto unknown in the history of mankind and of war (such as napalm, fragmentation bombs, phosphorous bombs, toxic gases, etc.)
and making an extensive use of new weapons of mass annihilation alli over Vietnam.
As regards the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the United States has been relentlessly escalating the war by conducting air bombings, air strafings, and shellings from its warships; it has been systematically and most savagely attacking civilian targets, peaceful economic establishments and populous areas of villages, towns and cities and destroying even schools, hospitals, churches, pagodas, temples, markets, etc., killing or wounding many civilians, including women and children. It has even been attacking many populous districts inside Hanoi, capital of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, including the embassies of the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Rumania, causing considerable losses in life and property in the suburbs of, and inside Hanoi. ;
In South Vietnam, together with U.S., satellite and puppet troops and under the guise of "extermination of Viet Cong," U.S. troops have stopped at no barbarous and brutal methods to achieve their aggressive purpose, have been flouting man's right to live, persecuting and torturing masses of patriots, herding people into concentration camps disguised as "strategic hamlets," putting into practice the "three all" (kill all, burn all and destroy all) policy, massacring civilians, including old people, children and women, striking at the very means of existence of the South Vietnamese people.
(3) All the above crimes constitute illegal criminal acts of aggression purposely organized and planned. They brazenly violate the Geneva Agreements, international law and customs and are grave and unpardonable war crimes against peace and humanity.
When after our investigation, back in our country, we shall try our best to give a clear and true picture of the criminal acts of the United States in Vietnam to the Japanese people and the peoples all over the world, in order to rally all democratic forces among the people in Japan and in the world and push ahead the movement to denounce and condemn U.S. war crimes.
We shall supply the "Japanese Committee for Investigation of U.S. war crimes in Vietnam" with all documents and evidence gathered and shall give full cooperation to the International War Crimes Tribunal initiated by Lord Bertrand Russell which will sit in this spring and contribute to its success.
(4) During our stay in Vietnam, we were received by President Ho Chi Minh and ’ Prime Minister Pham Van Dong and were given close cooperation by the D.R.V. Commission for Investigation of U.S. war crimes in Vietnam headed by Dr. Pham Ngoc Thach. In addition, we enjoyed the friendly cooperation of the Permanent Representation of the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation headed by Mr. Nguyen Van Tien. With the militant friendship between the peoples of Japan and Vietnam, with the cooperation of the D.R.V. Commission for Investigation and the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation Commission for the denunciation of U.S. war crimes in Vietnam, we will do our best to carry out a more comprehensive and detailed investigation of U.S. imperialist war crimes.
. _ (5) Through our talks held with Vietnamese civilians in various localities of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam which we visited and with witnesses produced by the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation whom wé met in Hanoi, we are deeply moved and fully realize the undaunted, courageous, and heroic spirit of the whole Vietnamese people in their successful struggle against U.S. aggression for national salvation.
We also realize that in spite of difficulties, the whole Vietnamese people are ‘in a position to carry out production and are fighting with full optimism and firm confidence in the final victory, which fact has strengthened our confidence in the final victory of the Vietnamese people.
Upon the strength of these preliminary conclusions we are determined: to convey to the Japanese people and the peoples of the world all facts which we have witnessed, - all evidence we have collected in order to bring to light U.S. crimes of aggression, ' crimes against peace and mankind with a view to contributing to checking U.S. aggression and crimes.