Following the end of the war, a long series of War Crimes Trials began which lasted through 1945 and 1946.
Colonel Cyril Wild, who had reported on the conditions suffered by the "F" Force (extracts mentioned in the article above), found himself in a singular position in the months following the Japanese surrender.
Although still not fully recovered from his own ordeal after three and half years
as a POW, Wild did not give himself up to the longed-
He was given the task of tracking down all Japanese, whatever rank, who had carried out atrocities against prisoners of war and to whom charges could be laid in respect of war crimes.
Being fluent in Japanese was a great advantage to Wild in his investigations as he was able to discover, through personal interrogations, the truth about many atrocities which might well have remained a mystery for ever. But he also bore the personal scars of one who had suffered much at the hands of the Japanese while with "F" Force and consequently he carried a great determination to see that justice was done.
Wild was therefore in a very unique position. He was a first class interpreter, as
his investigations progressed he became a ruthless interrogator and his own experiences
made him a first-
The task of seeking out those who were accountable for the barbarous criminal treatment of "F" Force was a duty Cyril Wild was eager to undertake. He had not only witnessed, but had also been victim of the horrendous treatment metered out to the POW's who were sent up through Thailand. The Japanese officers and guards, responsible for the deaths of so many men who died with "F" Force, had much to fear when Cyril Wild was due to give evidence at the trials held in Singapore.
But his evidence was never given. Shortly before he was due to appear in court Cyril Wild was summoned to Tokyo to give evidence at war crimes trials being held there. His task completed in Tokyo, Wild was very apprehensive and keen to get back to Singapore as soon as possible so as not to miss the Singapore trials on the "F" Force atrocities.
He left Tokyo and flew first to Hong Kong, but then faced a delay waiting for a flight to Singapore. He was then offered a last minute chance to board a Dakota scheduled for Singapore. The date was 25th September 1946. The plane took off and crashed almost immediately killing everyone on board. Cyril Wild was 38, his body was found and buried in Hong Kong.
The day after the fateful 'accident', and there were many who did not believe it
was, the "F" Force trials began in Singapore. The trials lasted for four weeks and
Wild's written testimony played a vital part in seeing that, in the main, justice
was done. His death was more than a tragedy; he had worked relentlessly for months
to bring the perpetrators to trial. He knew the alleged criminals, he knew first-
COLONEL WILD’S COFFIN CARRIED WITH HONOUR
Very few of Wilds cases were ever recovered. The following week captain Godwin was instructed to stop all further investigations.
Later along with a number of other witnesses I received a letter informing me that the cases I was involved in would cost too much money to proceed and therefore the matters had been taken out of circulation. At the same time hundreds of Japanese being held pending trial for war crimes, were released and given varying sums of money to enable them to return to Japan.
Kaiyoki Tanaka and Hashimoto the two war criminals I was giving evidence against in the Singapore trials, escaped to the jungles of Malaya where they worked alongside the Chinese terrorist until 1992, when they were too ill to continue without medical treatment. In 1979 and 1981, I had personally asked the British Embassy in Thailand to investigate and apprehend Tanaka and Hashimoto without success.
Colonel Wild acting in the capacity of senior British war crimes investigator had discovered the fact that unit 731 was created and financed by Emperor Hirohito who was very much interested in the essence of bacteriological war fare his researches had established the fact that the Emperor himself was a major war criminal and he had the necessary material to prove his findings. In May 1946 the colonel informed MacArthur that he was in possession of certain documents which would prove the Emperor was a major war criminal. In July McArthur issued a directive for all investigation of war criminals to cease forthwith.
Within one week after Japan’s surrender, Col. Sanders of US military intelligence
had been among the first group of Americans to land in Japan. His mission was to
locate as soon as possible the Japanese biological warfare machine and the infamous
General Ishii. In the next three months, Sanders had interrogated many important
military leaders and Scientists of Unit 731, notably Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the
Army General Staff and erstwhile Kuantung Army Commander-
Upon his arrival in Japan, Sanders was immediately under the watchful eye of his
interprete Lt. Col. Ryoichi Naito. Who was a student of general Ishii at the Tokyo
Army Medical College. When serving as assistant professor at the college in 1939,
Naito was sent to America. His mission was to get yellow fever strain from the Rockefeller
Institute for Medical Research in New York, which was refused. Later at Pingfang,
he became the right-
Sanders spent just ten weeks in Japan and was then, in view of the vast knowledge he had learned was ordered home with orders on strict secrecy being maintained. The second stage of investigation was taken over by his Detrick colleague Lt. Col. Arvo T. Thompson, a veterinarian. After his return, Sanders was protracted to tuberculosis and invalid for the next two years, having forever lost the possibility of returning to Japan to renew the investigation of Unit 73 1. Forty year later, he told Williams and Wallace: I talked to Arvo Thompson [who committed suicide in 1948] who was to carry of the next stage of the investigations. And he remembered telling "Tommy" Thompson about the anthrax bomb and the experiments on the human beings. and told him specifically to look at the anthrax experiments and the Uji bomb.
Included in these experiments was genocide by transference in human Genes.
REST IN PEACE COLONEL WILD
THE FATE OF COLONEL CYRIL WILD