The Daily Monitor

Baffled by Gen. MacArthur Jap General Ends Own Life Masaharu Homma Reported to Have Committed Hari Kari in Manila

WASHINGTON, March 9—(AP)—Lieut. Gen. Masaharu Homma, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief in the Philippines has committed suicide, persistent reports said today, because of his failure to smash American-Filipino resistance.

The reports were eloquent testimony to the extent that General Douglas MacArthur has upset the Japanese timetable for conquest in the islands.

General MacArthur, who relayed the information about Homma to the War Department yesterday, emphasized that the reports were not yet completely verified but emanated from sources "hitherto regarded as reliable."

UNCANNY EFFICIENCY

Because the undercover system whereby MacArthur obtains information from behind the enemy lines has been uncanny in its efficiency in the past, the capital was inclined to place considerable faith in the reports that General Homma had committed hari-kari.

"According to these reports," the War Department communique said, "the Japanese General's suicide was motivated by the fact that his numerically superior forces had been unable to destroy the American and Philippine defenders of Bataan and Corregidor.

BURIED FEB. 26

"The funeral rites of the late Japanese commander, these reports state, were held on Feb. 26 in Manila and were attended by personal representatives of Emperor Hirohito, after which Gen. Homma's ashes were flown to Japan for interment.

"An interesting and ironic detail of the story is that the suicide and funeral rites occurred in the suite at the Manila hotel occupied by General MacArthur prior to the evacuation of Manila."

In the same report, MacArthur told how American artillery in hidden positions inflicted heavy casualties on a Japanese regiment en route to the Bataan front. The regiment, some 2500 strong, was moving up in a caravan of 90 trucks when the American batteries opened up. MacArthur said 29 of the enemy trucks and most of their occupants were destroyed indicating casualties of 700 or more.