Japanese numbers

Sir I refer to the article No Aussie Knighthood for Winston (31 January). Whilst I agree with the overall gist, the author must be corrected regarding the true size of the Japanese army that invaded Malaya in 1941.

A recently discovered Shinto shrine in the Japanese cemetery in Singapore reveals the true size of General Yamashita’s army. Inscribed on the shrine are the words, in Japanese, ‘Here lie entombed over 10,000. A monument to the faithful who died in battle.’ These ashes were originally contained in a Shinto shrine and pagoda erected at the command of General Yamashita in May 1942, its intention being to commemorate those who had fallen in the Malayan and Sumatran campaigns; this was announced in the Singapore Syonan Times dated 8th May 1942. The shrine was completed in September 1942, but fearful of desecration by the advancing Allies both the shrine and pagoda were destroyed by the Japanese in 1945 and the ashes moved to their present location.

By applying comparative combat fatality rates (not casualty rates) it is possible to use the figure of ‘over 10,000’ ashes to calculate the approximate size of the Japanese forces in the Malayan campaign of 1941-42. Sumatra involved only the very brief battle for the Dutch oil refinery at Palembang where overall Japanese casualties were very low.

Locations in World War II where some of the fighting was at its fiercest were Omaha Beach on D-Day and the campaigns in the Pacific for Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The US fatality rate at Omaha Beach was in the order of 4-5 per cent, whilst at Iwo Jim and Okinawa it was 6 per cent. It is known that the opposition faced by the Japanese in Malaya was fairly weak, but even if the highest combat fatality rate of 6 per cent is applied, which seems unlikely, the Japanese forces must have numbered over 160,000. The Monument is still there and can be seen today in the cemetery in Chuan Hoe Avenue. Copies of the Syonan Times for May and September 1942 can be obtained through the Singapore Government.

It has been agreed that General Percival’s army numbered in the region of 88,000, of which some 45 per cent were young, undertrained Indians, many of whom had hardly got used to wearing any footwear let alone army boots. He was supported by 158 obsolete planes as against 800 modern Japanese aircraft which included the Mitsubishi Zero, at that time equalled only by the Spitfire or the Messerschmitt 109. Percival had estimated the enemy force at about 150,000, a figure that was ridiculed as the excuse of the defeated; the above figures would seem to indicate that he was about right.
Michael Arnold
South Coogee, Australia

In defence of Kids Company

Sir: Your piece ‘The problem with Kids Company’ (14 February) bears an important message: charities need to be transparent and accountable. That’s why Kids Company was independently audited twice last year alone, and our financial structures and functioning put to the test. We also have auditors working alongside us, verifying our outputs and outcomes in relation to our government grant.

All such audits have been positive. Several pieces of independent research were carried out capturing our clinical work and our staff wellbeing — two of these found our staff satisfaction and productivity to be above 90 per cent. Some 600 staff, almost 10,000 volunteers and 500 clinical students worked at Kids Company last year.

It wouldn’t be surprising if in stressful circumstances working with troubled children and a lack of money there were a handful of disgruntled individuals with things to say to journalists. I can take all this on my fat chin, so charmingly depicted by your artist! However it is another matter as to whether Kids Company’s dedicated staff, volunteers, over 77,000 generous donors and the children we help deserve to be treated in such way.
Camila Batmanghelidjh
Kids Company, London SE5

Objectionable measures

Sir: Rod Liddle sets the bar formidably high in his amusing reading of the Guardian’s linguistic idiocies (14 February), but that’s no reason not to try to clear it. Years ago I used the phrase ‘gentlemen’s measures’ in a column for the paper — an archaic term, perhaps, but not an offensive one. Yet it was unacceptable to a section editor, who told me it was demeaning to women. It went in as ‘large drinks’! However, if you refer, as one of the paper’s many well-bred lady columnists did, to ‘little icky Christianity’, nobody seems offended at all.
Michael Henderson
London W13

Who Ed owes

Sir: Peter Oborne declares that ‘if Ed Miliband does become Prime Minister, he will have done so without owing anything to anybody’ (‘In praise of Ed Miliband’, 14 February). I disagree. He owes virtually everything to the trade union leaders who secured the Labour leadership for him, and that is profoundly dangerous for this country. He has done nothing to confront them with the cold reality that the UK has to live within its means. If he is elected, those same trade union leaders will expect a ‘Syriza/Podemos’ policy of economic delusion and fantasy. Surely a leader’s first responsibility is to warn and educate those around him of the true facts of life? Miliband fails that test abysmally.
John Jenkins
Cardiff

Hands-off repairs

Sir: Alexander Chancellor applauds the imminent arrival of the driverless car (Long life, 14 February). But what happens when one of these wonders of the modern world breaks down in the centre lane of the motorway? Will the RAC send a driverless patrol car to shunt the hapless vehicle onto the hard shoulder where it will be expected to repair itself?
Nicholas Barrett
Hove, East Sussex