70th Anniversary of an execution. (1 Viewer)

[ROUGH RIDER]

On this day in 1942 Serjeant George Forbes Lees of His Majesties Royal Artillery 9th Coast Regiment was executed. After the fall of Singapore he and his mate were caught trying to escape. For this they had to dig their graves and were murdered by the japanese. Serjeant Lees was my wifes Grandfather. God rest their souls and all others on this date.

 

[theBaron]

Re: 70th Anniversary of a murder

May he rest in peace!

I changed the title for my responding post. You described the event more correctly in the body of your post. It wasn't an execution. It was murder.

Do you know more of the story, that is, were the guards later killed in action, or did they survive the war, and if so, were they identified and charges brought?

 

[Mitch]

very few japanese were tried for their crimes. It was overshadowed by the war crimes trials in europe and, we just seemed sadly, to not have the vigour to track them down. I once read some comments from prosecutors at the trials that did occur flippantly say it was a nightmare as they all looked the same.

It always struck me as strange that they were not tracked with the same vigour that we hunt the germans with even though, they committed arguably, worse crimes against the POW's and civillians
Mitch

 

[Louis Badolato]

very few japanese were tried for their crimes. It was overshadowed by the war crimes trials in europe and, we just seemed sadly, to not have the vigour to track them down. I once read some comments from prosecutors at the trials that did occur flippantly say it was a nightmare as they all looked the same.

It always struck me as strange that they were not tracked with the same vigour that we hunt the germans with even though, they committed arguably, worse crimes against the POW's and civillians
Mitch

Mitch, this is the third time today I find myself agreeing with you (unprecidented!^&grin). I never could understand why we allowed so many Japanese war criminals not only to escape prosecution, but to prosper under Allied protection thereafter. The Pacific war veterans it has been my privilege to meet universally spoke of the Japanese Military as being brutal and murderous, particularly to P.O.W.'s or civilians who had the misfortune to be captured. I think they were every bit as much war criminals that their Allies in Germany, and believe they should have been similarly prosecuted as such with equal vigor.

 

[ROUGH RIDER]

As far as the family knew no one individual was identified or charged. Don't even know if the bodies were ever recovered. I have no idea why the japanese didn't receive the same punishment as the Germans. I'm sure it was all political but I just don't know.