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Statement of obligations incurred and expenditures made for Work Projects Administration-operated projects, by classes of projects, under appropriations of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Acts, fiscal years 1942 and 1943, as of Nov. 30, 1943 1

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Statement of obligations incurred and expenditures made under funds transferred to other Federal agencies under provisions of sec. 6 of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, fiscal year 1942, by classes of projects, as of Nov. 30, 1943

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Statement of obligations incurred and expenditures made under funds transferred to other Federal agencies under provisions of sec. 6 of Emergencp Relief Appropriation Act, fiscal year 1942, by clastes of projects, as of Nov. 30, 1943 1—Continued

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JAPANESE ATROCITIES TO PRISONERS

OF WAR

JOINT PRESS RELEASE

OF THE

WAR AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS

CONTAINING

STORIES OF JAPANESE ATROCITIES AND
BRUTALITIES TO THE AMERICAN AND
PHILIPPINE ARMED FORCES WHO

WERE PRISONERS OF WAR IN
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1944

HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 424

[Submitted by Mr. BULWINKLE]

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

January 31, 1944.

Resolved, That the reports of the War and Navy Departments containing stories of Japanese atrocities and brutalities to the American and Philippine armed forces who were prisoners of war in the Philippine Islands be printed as a House document and that 50,000 additional copies be printed for the use of the House document room: Provided, That each Member of the House of Representatives shall receive 100 copies thereof.

Attest:

II

SOUTH TRIMBLE, Clerk.

JAPANESE ATROCITIES TO PRISONERS OF WAR

WAR DEPARTMENT

BUREAU OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

PRESS BRANCH

Joint Army-Navy Release

The factual and official story of how the Japanese tortured, starved to death, and sometimes wantonly murdered American and Filipino soldiers who had been taken prisoner on Bataan and Corregidor was jointly released last night by the Army and Navy.

The facts were taken from reports made by Commander Melvyn H. McCoy, United States Navy, of 1126 LaSalle Street, Indianapolis, Ind.; Lt. Col. S. M. Mellnik, Coast Artillery Corps, of Dunmore, Pa., and Lt. Col. (then captain) William E. Dyess, Air Corps, of Albany, Tex., all of whom escaped from the Philippines after almost a year as Japanese prisoners. Their sworn statements included no hearsay whatever but only facts which the officers related from their own personal experience and observations. The statements have been verified from other sources. After he made his statement to the War Department, Colonel Dyess was killed in a crash of his fighter plane at Burbank, Calif., while he was preparing to go back and fight the Japanese who had tortured him; Colonel Mellnik is now on duty with General MacArthur; Commander McCoy is on duty in this country.

The three officers stated that several times as many American prisoners of war have died, mostly of starvation, forced hard labor, and general brutality, as the Japanese have ever reported. At one prison camp, Camp O'Donnell, about 2,200 American prisoners died in April and May 1942. In the camp at Cabanatuan, about 3,000 Americans had died up to the end of October 1942. Still heavier mortality occurred among the Filipino prisoners of war at Camp O'Donnell.

While this report deals exclusively with the records of Commander McCoy, Colonel Mellnik, and Colonel Dyess, other Americans known to have escaped from Japanese prison camps in the Philippines include Maj. Michiel Dobervitch, of Ironton, Minn.; Maj. Austin C. Shofner, of Shelbyville, Tenn.; Maj. Jack Hawkins, of Roxton, Tex.; and Corp. Reid Carlos Chamberlain, of El Cajone, Calif., all of the United States Marine Corps.

The calculated Japanese campaign of brutality against the battlespent, hungry American and Filipino soldiers on Bataan began as soon as they surrendered, with what was always thereafter known among its survivors as the March of Death. Commander McCoy

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