the truth about execution of Australia child during World War II (11y/o for espionage by Japanese)

WHEN first hearing the story of an 11-year-old Australian boy executed by the Japanese as a spy in World War II, one can’t help but think two things: this is shocking, and how have I not heard of it before? When he stumbled onto details of the firing squad death of Dickie Manson and his mother Marjorie in May 1942, Brisbane author Ian Townsend, 56, thought exactly that...

The chilling facts behind what Townsend believes is the only military court martial and execution of an Australian child were not too hard to piece together. The Australian government, knowing the Japanese were on their way to Rabaul, sent a ship to evacuate all women and children, while leaving the civilian men and the military garrison to face the enemy. Marjorie, fatefully, decided to stay. When the Japanese invaded, Marjorie, Dicky, Jimmy, Ted and Bill fled into the jungle. Betrayed by a local man, they were caught and searched. Ted had a two-way radio with him, with which he had been trying to contact Australian aircraft. Marjorie had hidden a pistol in her bag.

They were court-martialled, found guilty of espionage and, on May 18, 1942, driven to the base of Tavurvur volcano in the back of an open truck. Marjorie tied a strip of red material, cut from a native lap-lap, around Dickie’s head to cover his eyes. They were led from the truck and lined up. Marjorie held one of Dickie’s hands, Ted Harvey the other, and on the order of Japanese naval officer Mizusaki Shojiro, a firing squad of six soldiers shot them dead.

“by the time they tracked him down, it had been decided not to proceed with further trials.”

Largely because Douglas MacArther wanted to become known as the father of Japanese Democracy in the same way that his father was known as the father of Philippine democracy.

He saw punishment down the chain of command as counterproductive.

“Read about the Japanese Army’s behavior during their invasion of Manchuria.”

I knew an old man who had been there.

Told him he should record his memoirs, but he said that if he did, the Uyoku (Japanese Nazis) would kill him.

Thank you for posting the article, and this link. Family lost Australian friends who were coastwatchers, who volunteered to sit up in a concealed hide in a tree top or cave in S. Pacific to observe and radio in japanese ship traffic. Their life expectancy was 3 days because the japs triangulated the radio signal. One of my uncle’s friends was captured and beheaded by a jap officer, who remains nameless. Perhaps it was espionage, but the man was defending his way of life and bravely volunteered. Throughout the Phillipines there were examples of such brave people, who had good reason to despise the “superior” japanese with the false sense of bushido. MacArthur in post war japan, was in a position of dealing with the rising chi-coms under Mao (who had abandoned the former “united front” with the Kuomintang to fight the japanese, once the war was over), and in order to keep defeated japan in US influence vs. chi-coms... went easy on so called lesser war criminals. It doesn’t make it right, nor does it in any way correctly answer for the atrocities such as was done to US, Australian, Dutch and many others by the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere (their word for the Empire).

Recall that Gen. Patton was castigated for hiring ex-nazis to run essential govt. functions (power companies, water, etc.) and were it not for US cultivating nazi spy rings, there would have been nothing to fight off the Soviets in post war occupied Germany. So much for “winning the peace”.

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