The award-winning investigative series returns, in which Mike Thomson takes a document as a starting-point to shed new light on past events.
The Case of the Suez Maru
Thursday 18th September 2008
Mike Thomson continues his investigative series with the terrible events surrounding the massacre of Allied POW's by the Japanese - and the document that allowed the perperators to escape justice.
In this programme Mike Thomson examines the case of the Suez Maru - a so-called Japanese 'Hell Ship' transporting allied POW's during the Second World war who were massacred at sea. In 1949 this case crossed the desk of the Secretary of State for War, Manny Shinwell, and, despite having the perpetrators in custody, the decision was taken not to prosecute those responsible for the murders. The case was closed, the accused released and the families of the perished militarymen in Britain never found out how they had met their end.
Mike Thomson pieces together the story of the Suez Maru through official documents, he talks to the families who lost loved ones and who only recently found out the truth and asks a defence counsel of the International Criminal Court in The Hague whether the case could still be tried.
