A JAPANESE officer responsible for the imprisonment of thousands of women was recommended for a gallantry medal by the British military, it emerged this week as war veterans protested at Japanese Emperor Akihito's state visit to Britain.

Official records of the war never before published have shown how the British military used Japanese troops in operations against the Indonesian independence fighters at the end of World War II to avoid suffering British casualties.

A Japanese officer, also responsible for an internment camp holding thousands of Dutch women, was even recommended for a gallantry medal for his role in quelling the Indonesian rebels.

A Major Kido from a Japanese armoured unit was recommended for the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), the second highest gallantry award for British servicemen after the Victoria Cross.

Official war histories gloss over the fact that about 35,000 Japanese troops in Indonesia at the end of the war were deployed by the British in combat against Indonesians fighting for independence from the Dutch.

But a researcher from Warwick University's history department, Andrew Roadnight, has uncovered evidence that shows Lord Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander in South East Asia at the end of the war, stopped Major Kido from receiving the award.

'The British were in a bit of a mess in that part of the world at the end of the war. Their main purpose was to recover their Empire, places like Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaya, but they were also responsible for other areas such as the Dutch East Indies, which has now become Indonesia, but they simply did not have the troops,' Mr Roadnight said.

'Mountbatten found he did not have enough troops so he used the Japanese troops already there, but as time went on this became more a matter of deliberate policy because he did not want to risk British casualties.' Official war diaries stored at the Public Record Officer, which have never been published, show Major Kido and his unit had been responsible for a concentration camp in Java holding thousands of civilian women during the war.

But after the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, the unit fought alongside British troops against Indonesian rebels, around the port of Samarang.

Private reports by Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Christison, the officer commanding allied forces in the Dutch East Indies, show Major Kido was singled out for his bravery in fierce fighting.

'Major Kido was actually recommended for a DSO,' Sir Philip wrote in his private records. This is backed up by reports by two other senior officers in the area at the time. A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defence confirmed some Japanese troops had fought alongside the British in Java after the end of the war but he would not comment on whether any of them had been recommended for gallantry awards.