Interview with Charles Kiet Pajoce (Interview)
(Indigenous perspective)
This interview was conducted by Dr Iwamoto Hiromitsu and transcribed/translated by Pastor Jacob Aramans

Charles: My name is Charles Kiet Pajoce. I come from Mukure village in Manus Province. I worked with the Australians and lived in Lorengau. I didn't understand the attitudes and the ways of the Australians. They would normally force us to do their work. I started working with them in 1940 and eventually the war came to us in 1942. In 1942 they bombed Lorengau. I did not feel afraid and run away, instead I followed the Australians. We left Lorengau town and fled into the bushes at Buliat. All the houses in Lorengau were burnt down. For what reasons, I do not know because we were in the bushes. I didn't even know the date when I was born because I was an illiterate person. When I was with the missionaries, they baptised me in 1920 and I was anointed as a Christian and my understanding developed from that point and so I went to work with the Australians. Later I thought of looking for a church so I walked down to Lukos Beach. I walked along the beach towards Bundralis and came to the church, confessed, prayed and received holy communion and then came back to the beach and walked towards Savalau. When I arrived there to my surprise I saw many Japanese ships. These ships were lined up on the coast from Awai and all the way to Rara. I walked along the beach to Tino and I saw all these ships. I did not feel scared, I walked back to Lukos where I started from and went to where the Australians were camped. I do not know how the Japanese landed. I only saw them living on their ships. When I went to Buliat, some men said the Japanese had probably occupied Lorengau already. They got up and said we must leave Buliat immediately and run away. So we left Buliat at night and ran away to Dranong. We arrived there and in the morning we headed for Powat. We rested on the way and some distance away there was a line of soldiers and also some civilians (government workers) We arrived in a jungle camp and found out that there were no people there. I don't know the name of that part of the jungle which is owned by the people of Misiai of the mainland. We stayed there and a luluai of Luai came (I do not know his name) and saluted the kiap (administrator) and asked " where are you going?" and the kiap answered " I am going to follow your river down to the beach". And the luluai complained that he should not head that way because the Japanese had already occupied the area. If he insisted on going there, the Japanese would get him. The kiap turned and headed back. So the kiap and the soldiers, including us and the carriers, went and asked some men to show us if there were any small bush tracks somewhere. They said yes there was a track and we asked where this track led to. They replied that if we followed it, we would reach the village of Kapa at the other end. Following their instructions we set out along the track and arrived at Kapa at around 7 to 8 o'clock at the night. We arrived in the village and there was no sign of any life. No men, pigs, dogs or chickens. The houses were empty. All the people feared the war and hid in the bushes. We went into an empty house and lit the fire and slept. The next morning, they said we would go down to the beach. And at the beach, there would be two roads to choose from, one would lead to Magat while the other should lead to a hot spring and from there we could use a canoe to paddle down to Patosi beach. When we arrived at Patosi, it was already dark. The kiap came out and lined us up, the policemen, carriers and the soldiers, and a briefing session took place. We, the locals don't know what he said. The kiap then told us that they would leave Manus tomorrow morning. He told us not to tell or inform the Japanese about this and to keep our mouths shut. He said they would leave us tomorrow and that the Japanese might kill them all or they might get lost in the big seas. Whatever happened however he said that we should know that Australia had another country on that was on their side in the fight against Japan. And that was America. If America won the war he told us that we would see the Australians return. But if Japan won, she would take control of all these places. Early in the morning two small boats arrived and the soldiers and government officers got on and left. The rest of us including some soldiers, carriers and the servants of the government officers stayed back. The kiap also wanted the crews of the boat to go with them. They said, whatever happens, they were ready to face the enemy and die on the way if need be. I saw them get on the boats but I knew nothing about their destination. I thought it was probably either Lae, Madang or Wewak. We chopped down the coconut trees, dug out the stumps and leveled the place. It was a hard job. We did not have any good rest or proper tools to work with. All the work was done by hand. We worked like prisoners. If you become tired or lazy they would be angry with you and the punishment that you would receive would be even harder. We would work for hours without rest. At times, they would put stones in your hands and make you stand for hours until the punishment was over. That was the kind of life and hardship that we encountered during the war. I was not happy but there was nothing much I could do to escape. I was punished once and was told to carry stones and stand for hours. These were the kind of painful things I did during the time of the Japanese occupation of Manus. I got sores on my hands and legs however they forced us to climb and get coconuts for them to drink with no consideration of the condition of our bodies. When I refused they took a piece of timber and tried to kill me but I ran into the bushes. All these things happened to me and others during the work to build the airfield. When they knew that the fighting was about to start and the planes would come soon, they got the sand and put it in the places where there was mud and holes. Then the roller went in and rolled the place and leveled it out. Then the planes came in and landed. It was a hard work. We chopped down the coconut trees, dug out their stumps, carried them and threw them into the places where there were holes, swamps or mud. Then we got the sand and threw that on top of them and finally the roller leveled it out. It was hard and laborious work. The Japanese probably knew when the fighting would begin. The Americans planned that on Saturday they would bomb the ships, Sunday would be the rest day and on Monday the Japanese planes would arrive. But the Japanese had already landed ten of their war planes on the airfield at Momote and were getting ready to fight the Americans on Monday morning. I left there to go to work at Patitala with a Japanese. He told me to go with him to the boat so I followed him. We went down to the boat at Saramei and loaded some cargo. While we were still in the boat’s hold we could hear a roaring sound like a motor engine. After we came out of the boat’s hold and were still on the bridge a spy plane came and took photographs of the area. We both ran away and hid ourselves under the bridge. The Japanese knew already that the fighting would begin that Monday morning and ten aero planes that came and landed earlier on were getting ready for the action. The Japanese and I went back to Lombrum to pick up some cargo there. We didn't know that the American war planes would be approaching. Two of the war planes came first and saw that there was a canoe at sea with people on it. It might have been people from Mano or Warei. They carried sago leaves and piled them up on the canoe and sailed on. When the American war plane approached them the pilot must have thought that the canoe could be carrying Japanese. A bomb was dropped and the canoe was ripped to pieces and all the people onboard were killed. We jumped from the boat and swam all the way to Lombrum Point and ran away to the village. I was so frightened - I don't know whether the Japanese felt the same. The boat that we were working on was set on fire. From that time on the Americans did not rest, fighting day and night, and eventually they took control of the place. The Americans fought so hard whereas the Japanese wasted their time. As the result they took control of the area. Dr Iwamoto: You stayed and worked for the Japanese while they were here - what sort of work you were doing? Charles: I worked for them to build the airfield. Every man from Manus had to work. If we didn't we would face the Japanese. If we were found to be guilty, we would be beaten up. Dr Iwamoto: Do you know the names of some Japanese? Charles: I don't know. Dr Iwamoto: Do you know how long you worked for the Japanese? Charles: Sorry, I could not understand. It was a long time ago which I already forgot. Most of the work we were doing was on the airfield and once the aero planes came in and landed that job was finished. We didn't have any cars or machines to use or work with. Dr Iwamoto: Did any of the Japanese fight with you? Charles: If a man did not do what they told him to do, they would punish him or fight him. Dr Iwamoto: Did the Japanese kill any of your people here? Charles: Yes, I saw them kill a luluai of Drosul village at Momote by beheading him. Dr Iwamoto: Why did they kill him? Charles: I don't know the reason behind his killing. Dr Iwamoto: Did any of your women work for the Japanese? Charles: Only men worked for the Japanese. Dr Iwamoto: Do you know if any of the Japanese spoke pidgin? Charles: They spoke a bit but not really fluently. Dr Iwamoto: Did any of the Japanese survive when the Americans arrived? And did you work with the Americans? Charles: Yes. Dr Iwamoto: What sort of work did you normally do for the Americans? Charles: I built houses for them and dug up graves to remove the dead American soldiers. I then put their bodies or remains into coffins and sent them to America. It was dirty and smelly work. All the other work that we did for the Americans was good and of a smaller magnitude. Dr Iwamoto: So during the American time, life was OK. Charles: When the Japanese left and the Americans came, it was a better time. Dr Iwamoto: Did the Americans compensate you for your efforts? Charles: Yes. They gave us a lot of food. Dr Iwamoto: Did the Japanese do any bad things to your women? Charles: Individual soldiers at times chased the women whenever they went to go and wash. They did not rape. Whenever a soldier chased our women, we would chase that soldier away. Dr Iwamoto: When the war was over and the Americans left did they compensate you? Charles: Not at all. We never received anything from America, however we did receive some compensation from Australia. Dr Iwamoto: Compensation in the form of money or materials ? Charles: We received money. Dr Iwamoto: Did you as an individual get any of that compensation? Charles: Yes, I received about K500.