On September 26, 1944, Lt. Bill Pauling was flying on a fighter mission near Mangshih. At 0810 other pilots in the formation heard Pauling gasp over the radio, "I'm hit. I guess I'll have to bailout." That was the last ever heard from Pauling. He was listed "mission in action, presumed dead."

  In the spring of 1945, Siki Suzuki, a civilian interpreter for the Japanese Army who didn't like fighting and war, deserted to the Allies, and started to talk to Army interrogation authorities. Serving with the advance headquarters of the Japanese 33rd Army at Boshi, near Mangshih, Suzuki knew a lot about Pauling's fate. Here is the story he told in roughly his own words.

  "At Boshi toward the end of September, 1944, I witnessed the beheading of an American aviator. I saw the American kneeling on the ground with his hands tied behind him. I saw Col. Moto - the headquarters Chief of Staff - right beside the American. Next to Moto was Lt. Nogayama. Within a radius of six or seven feet were several other staff officers. Altogether about 35 officers and 350 men, nearly the entire personnel of the headquarters, stood around in a close circle.


USED BURMESE SWORD

  "I saw Col. Moto with a piece of bomb fragment in his hand facing Pauling. I saw him strike Pauking across the face and open a cut. Nogayama had a Japanese sword. From one of my fellow interpreters who was right up close, I later heard that Moto wanted Nogayama to behead Pauling, but bot with the Japanese sword. He sent a private to the office to fetch a Burmese sword. "Meanwhile Nogayama held a picture of Pauling's wife in front of the flier.

  "When the Burmese sword came, Nogayama blindfolded Pauling. Col. Moto said, "Get on with it." Nogayama raised the sword and swung it on the back of Pauling's head. It did not sever on the first blow and Lt. Pauling fell forward. Two soldiers pulled him up. Nogayama then swung the sword once or twice more and it cut through Pauling's neck.

  "Later the other interpreter told me he had seen a piece of flesh cut off Pauling's thigh. He said the flesh had been salted down by a soldier to preserve it.

  "A few weeks later we had a party to celebrate the moving of headquarters to a new area. Officers in Col. Moto's hut sent for an orderly from my hut. We sent our orderly, a private, and he came back with a piece of broiled meat. I can't say definitely what the meat was because I didn't eat any, but I know ut was not pig." (Officers had claimed it was pig in their affidavits.)

  "My fellow interpreter said, "This is the flesh of the intellectual American and if you eat it you will have moe wisdom.

  "I refused and a sergeant said, "You are too soft hearted. Eating humna fl;esh was common in China at the front. I have eaten it there."

  Suzuki's account of the small talk among the Japanese soldiers following the beheading gives startling insight into their character. Most of them were a little upset. Common opinion was that the least Nogayama could have done for the American was to use the good sharp Japanese sword!

  Nogayama himself went around the camp crestfallen. He was deeply ashamed of himself - because he hadn't done the job in one stroke!


NO TRUE SPIRIT

  More insight comes from the reactions of the Nip staff officers questioned late. Said a first lieutenant on Moto's staff, "I do not think Col. Moto, who knows the true spirit of the Japanese sword, would use it for murder. I believe that the Burmese sword might have been used for the beheading."

  They all denied being present at the execution and denied the cannibalism. However, every one questioned stated he believed or had heard that Col. Moto was responsible for the murder.

  Help cam from unexpected sources - a full colonel and a lieutenant colonel of the Japanese headquarters staff at Boshi. Both were being imprisoned as suspected criminals in Rangoon jail, and didn't like it. The Lt. Colonel said, "I hope he (Col. Moto) is pronounced guilty because I want to get out of here." The full colonel told interrogators he would tell the whole truth because there is no use living in confinement for the crime of others when he could be back on his farm in Japan resting!

  The colonel with the predilections for farm life, denies the cannibalism at Boshi but says, "While I was in Japan at Tank School I heard that Col. Moto had eaten the flesh of a POW in Malaya. While Col. Moto was on Guadalcanal he told news reporters, "I will get the kidney of a POW and eat it - soon I shall serve you fresh meat of American prisoners." These statements were published in a Japanese magazine and read by several of the officers testifying.

  American War Crimes investigators started on the trail of Moto. But in the records of the Commanding General of the 18th Nip Army at Bangkok, Moto was listed as a suicide. Lt. Nogayama was a hospital patient ion Indo-China in January of this year and will be removed into custody as soon as sufficiently recovered.

  Murder? Cannibalism? The court has not yet decided. But here are the facts to date.

  (Due to legal considerations in connection with the forthcoming S. E. Asia War Crimes Trials, all names used in this article are fictitious.)

Murder Of U.S. Flier In Burma Described  

Excerpted from the February 21, 1946 issue of India-Burma Theater Roundup




Copyright © 2025 Carl Warren Weidenburner




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