M32

Morotai Trial M32 was an Australian war crimes trial conducted on Morotai on 5 February 1946. The case concerned the murder of two Royal Australian Air Force airmen, Hutton and Lockyer, who were held as prisoners of war after their capture during the Second World War. Sergeant Major Morimoto Kiyomitsu of the 8th Field Military Police was charged with their unlawful killing.

The prosecution alleged that, at Kaaten in or about August 1945, Morimoto removed the two prisoners from their cells and killed them before secretly burying their bodies. According to the evidence accepted by the court, one airman was rendered unconscious with chloroform before being buried, while the second was partially chloroformed, strangled and then buried. The court found Morimoto guilty and sentenced him to death by shooting. On review, the Judge Advocate General recommended that the accused's petition be dismissed and that the conviction and sentence be confirmed. This page summarises the trial, the evidence, the sentence imposed and the surviving archival records, including the Judge Advocate General's report.