Homma’s Defense Cites High Death Rate of Japs MANIAL (INS) – The military commission trying Gen. Masaharu Homma heard the defendant’s chief medical officer, Maj. Gen. Shusuke Horiguchi, testify that the Japanese death rate in the Philippines was higher than the American rate even in the early days of the war. Horiguchi, who described Homma as an armchair general, admitted that the Japanese had no special plans for taking care of prisoners of war, but said that the Japanese troops were in no better condition, declaring that they lost 30 percent of their dysentery cases and 15 percent of their malaria cases In reply to a question by a member of the commission, Horiguchi admitted that the Japanese considered neither sanitation nor water supplies when the war prisoner camps were established. Capt. Robert Orton, a medical officer, contrasted American treatment of Japanese prisoners with the neglect and brutality of the Japanese camps. More than 79,000 Japanese prisoners in Manila during the past six months showed an average weight gain of 20 to 40 pounds. Only 1800 had died, although virtually all had been suffering from disease and malnutrition when captured. Orton pointed out that more than 30,000 Americans and Filipinos died in Camp O’Donnell alone after less than two months captivity.