What a U.S. Major Did When the Fukuoka Commandant Charged With 150 Deaths Handed Him His Sword

In September 1945 the Japanese major who ran Fukuoka POW Camp Number Three handed his sword to an American. The American was one of his own prisoners. Eleven days later that prisoner put something on paper that followed the major all the way to a courtroom in Yokohama. This is the story of Camp Three at Kokura, where Allied prisoners rode open freight cars to the Yawata steel works, told through the men who left paper behind: the doctor who signed death forms he couldn't understand, the commander who opened the warehouses, the Japanese witness who described a sword, and the general who made the final call. Sources used: Eighth Army Staff Judge Advocate, Review of Case #15, United States vs. Yaichi Rikitake (28 May 1946), with action by Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger (June 1946) Statement of Lt. Col. Winnifred O. Dorris, Coast Artillery (26 Sept 1945) Affidavit of Lt. Col. John B. Bennett, Medical Corps (3 May 1946) Affidavit of Capts. Vetalis V. Anderson and William A. Blueher (20 Oct 1945) Affidavit of S/Sgt. Alfred A. Haws (9 Oct 1945); affidavit of Cpl. Wade H. Armstrong, USMC GHQ SCAP Legal Section, Investigation Report, POW Camp No. 3 Fukuoka (Feb 1946) U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-346525 (15 Sept 1945) C.W.J. Phelps scrapbook clippings, Pacific War Crimes Trials collection, University of Virginia Law Library Gibbs Report on Fukuoka #3 (31 July 1946); Fukuoka #3 death roster (RG 153, RG 331) via the Center for Research: Allied POWs Under the Japanese (mansell.com) Topics covered: Fukuoka POW Camp 3 (Tobata/Yawata/Kokura) · Yawata steel works prison labor · Major Yaichi Rikitake · Major Winnifred O. Dorris · death certificates and medical neglect · the August 8, 1945 Yawata raid · Kokura and the second atomic bomb · the surrender of the camp and the sword · the 1946 Yokohama war crimes trial · clemency and Eichelberger's review