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

The story about the Second World War begins like this: It was one Sunday and to our surprise we saw aeroplanes coming. The warplanes flew in a straight line, one after the other. The big men in the village said that they were Japanese warplanes. The Japanese would take over Rabaul. They said that but we didn't see it happen until another Sunday. We saw six different planes come and then fly back. A week later they changed flights. Only two-engined aeroplanes were sent. They flew straight to Rabaul and dropped bombs. As they continued doing that we stayed at home and could hear the sounds of the bomb blasts. We didn't know where the warplanes came from, whether they came from a ship or directly from Japan. We prepared ourselves to run away into the bush. We ran away into the bush and started digging and preparing holes in the ground to hide in. Every man dug his own hole for himself and his family. When we heard that the enemy was on his way we quickly ran into our holes and hid ourselves. We just did what the soldiers told us to do. We hid ourselves in the holes but we didn’t stay there for long because we were afraid that the ground might cave in and bury us. So then we went into the bush and started building bush houses to live in. The following week they came and a fierce battle took place between the two enemies. They bombed Rabaul, Talwat and Haus Guria. The bombs fell everywhere in Rabaul and totally ruined it with the exception of the mission station which was only slightly damaged. A day later the news came that another bomb had been dropped at Talwat and totally destroyed the huge machine gun that was strategically located there. The enemy's planes also bombed another big machine gun set up in Guria. Once these guns had opened fire the enemy's planes saw where they were and the warplanes went straight in and bombed them. After the machine guns were destroyed the Japanese ships sailed into Rabaul, although they didn't go straight into Rabaul but instead anchored off Watam Island. There were about twenty warships and twenty cargo ships grouped together at sea off Watam. There were many, many ships anchored there. After that the planes flew over Rabaul and spied on it and came back and said that the place was now clear of enemy guns. After that the Japanese went into Rabaul. They fought a little bit and they came this way with all their cars and other things and went all the way to Kerevat. Heavy fighting took place at Kerevat. Many soldiers camped at Kerevat. They built a lot of tunnels going in different directions. They set up machine guns and other various guns of war in the tunnels. They began to settle down but then a Malaysian half cast who spoke Japanese told them that all these bushes were filled with Australians. When the Japanese heard this they set up a mortar and fired it at the area where they suspected their enemies were. The Australians died everywhere like dogs and it was very sad. The fighting was almost over when the Japanese were doing this. They wiped out the Australians and only a few got away. A few fought back until eventually all their bullets were finished and then they threw down their guns and ran away. They ran all the way to Baining. Some of them hid themselves in the plantations in Baining while others fought all the way to the New Guinea mainland. There was no fighting in other parts of New Guinea. In Rabaul the fight was very strong. Mr. McGathy, the Kiap (administrator), traveled all the way to a small airstrip at Guasa and got on a plane and went all the way to Australia. The Japanese were now occupying Rabaul. Many more dead bodies were discovered in Kerevat then in Rabaul. At Kerevat you saw many different sizes of bodies lying everywhere with their hats on and you thought they were just asleep but they were dead. Then the Japanese came and told us to dig the soil and just cover up the bodies of the dead soldiers. We got spades and shovels and dug small holes that were not too deep and this was just to cover the smell. We rolled the bodies in and covered them up. These particular places at Vudal and Kerevat began to stink. All the small creeks were polluted and the locals were unable to wash or drink from them. The Japanese's soldiers went around to the villages and said,that the fighting was over and they would be staying for good. They started to set up stores in Rabaul. They also set up the district office, the courthouse, and other facilities. They said that General Yamamoto said the war was over. They raised their flag indicating that the war was over and there would be no more fighting. There was a Japanese man called Dashiro who was a patrol officer. He stayed here even before the war came. When he heard that the war was over he automatically declared himself as an administrator and took control over Rabaul. He appointed policemen to make sure people followed the rules and regulations. They made sure that troublemakers were brought to justice. The Japanese started to introduce their laws. They set up Luluais, and they also told the people to set up businesses and told us the Japanese would help us in whatever business activities we were able to do. Dashiro said Japan was the best country, it could help people and they made paper books and other stationary. The Japanese also brought prostitutes with them. A prostitute’s house was set up in Rabaul on the other side of where the market is now. The natives were not allowed to go into this house. Only the Japanese and other foreigners (Australians) were allowed to enter. Foreign (white) women who held important positions with the Japanese could also enter the house. Bad people were not allowed to go in. If the Japanese saw young boys or women they pressed them to go inside. The soldiers walked around with pillows under their shirts. If they came across a woman and wanted to have intercourse with her they would just do it anywhere. The Japanese told the Luluais, that, if anybody wanted to help the Australians and fight against them they would be brought to court and judged. Some crazy Luluais told the Japanese about people who took sides with the Australians and many were brought to court and judged. The punishment was to receive thirty lashes from a whip. The policemen would hold your hand to the front and you bend down and received the whipping. It was a very painful punishment. In the middle of the war at Watam Island I saw parts of legs, arms, heads and other body parts after a ship was bombed in the sea. When the Americans came to claim Rabaul many Japanese died like animals. The Japanese lived in Rabaul for two years. They did a lot of work. They built many tunnels and at Watam you can see their tunnels still there today. They used dynamite to dig holes to prepare defences in case the Americans came . If the Americans had come on foot or by sea they would have been wiped out by the Japanese. Luckily for them they came by air. When the Japanese arrived here they didn't relax and they worked very hard for two years. When the Americans won the Japanese said to us that General Yamamoto said the war was over. He said the Americans would stay in Rabaul and the Japanese would go back to Japan. The warplanes slowed down their attacks. Only four single-engine planes were flying to and fro attacking every morning at around breakfast time. They shot many of our people. The Japanese didn't shoot any of our people. When the Americans took over Rabaul many of our people died. When Japanese came they only looked for the Australians, Americans and the Englishmen. In Watam the Allies killed ten people. Out of these people who died one was a woman. They were walking along the road when they saw a war plane approaching so they ran away and hid themselves in the small bushes. The plane had already seen them and it fired its bullets straight into the bushes and shot dead the woman. The people took her body and went straight to the cemetery and buried her. The Japanese did shoot one man because he had been stealing however they didn’t shoot people unnecessarily. They lived among the people and became good friends to them. If a Japanese soldier came to you or a particular family and you helped him, he would also help you and so you both became good friends. Their ways were good and caring. They don't steal anything from us personally but they did steal food from our gardens. They took pawpaws, bananas, taro and other garden food. Whenever a Japanese stole from a family he wouldn't look back but instead would go forward. At the same time, he would not visit you or see you for quite a while and then he would see you again. That was their way of stealing. During the war my uncle owned a big pig farm. In the farm there were about three hundred pigs. The Japanese came with laplaps and exchanged them for ten pigs. Some days later they appeared with a second lot of laplaps which they bartered for another lot of pigs. They kept on doing this until the piggery was emptied. All those laplaps were taken from the stores in Rabaul. The Japanese were great meat eaters. After this my uncle Noah’s pig farm was cleaned out and he got no more business and went broke. I became an employee of the Japanese. My job was to look after and make sure people were safe and protected. Anyone who did not follow the rules and regulations set by the Japanese was brought to court. I made sure that people followed the law and did not disturb others. We were okay - the people followed the laws set by the Japanese. Then the Japanese told us that a school would be set up. We thought that this talk of setting up a school was a sign that the war was now over. But that year they started the war again. Perhaps it was normal for Japan to give money to help other countries to set up work and other activities. We were told that England gave a lot of money to America to help fund the war. The Japanese looked around for American spies. They found them and said the fighting would probably come back again. We stayed for another year and a message came from the Americans telling us to make baskets and to fasten them up on the branches of trees up on the mountains and hills. That would be a sign to the Americans that Tolais (natives) lived there. They also wanted us to and tell them where the Japanese lived by placing baskets there with writing or a special mark on them. Some villagers did that but we didn't because we knew the laws of the Japanese and what the consequences would be if they found out. We only made unmarked baskets and set them up on trees to show the American warplanes where we lived. The Japanese would come and ask us whether we had seen any Australians around. They questioned us because they knew from their spies that some unexpected people visited us. Transport routes were cut off from Japan. Their food supply was also cut off and the Japanese didn't have any food. We were surprised by this and thought the fighting would start again. We were confused and many of our men were held and questioned. We heard that the men held went to court and then to prison. The Japanese held many of our men at Nerima in Rabaul and beheaded them. There were local men who were recruited and became “kenpei” (policemen). They walked around with long knives (bionnets) on their sides. They were the ones who killed the men at Nerima. They would ask the victims to dig their own graves and then they blindfolded them and brought them close to the holes. A big notice would be written on a post card which read "kill". The kenpei, one from Kavieng, New Ireland, called Masket, one from Matupit, another one from Sepik and one more from Kavieng were appointed captains and many of those executions were carried out by them. When the war was over these men were brought to court and went to jail but only for a short period of time. This is because it was wartime and they only carried out the executions under the orders of the Japanese. A Kavieng man called Masek won the court and wasn't put in prison when he came back. He worked for Australia for a short while and then died. We saw this with our eyes. During the war you must follow the law and carry out orders. Whatever you were told to do you just had to do. The soldiers (Japanese) were divided into platoons and scattered everywhere on Watam Island and as well as the mainland. The Japanese held many people from different places in jail. Mainly Singaporeans and Indians were in prison. There was not enough food to eat. Many were skinny and boney. At the jail in Nonga the Japanese were not looking after the prisoners. If a man did not listen to the instructions he was given he would be whipped and severely beaten. They received very hard labour and it wasn’t easy. The Japanese built a big fence from where the depot is all the way down to Tanlili. From Tawin point all the way to Nonga and then to Tanlili Bay you would find many Indians there. At night men sang songs and over a thousand people from Watam went there. These were my people. At Watam they took twenty Luluais. This was because during the good time (before the war) Watam had five villages. The population was huge and they were taken to prison. The Japanese extended the fence and they took more men from the island as well as the mainland. Then they loaded all of these men onto warships and sailed to Buna in Oro Province on the mainland of Papua. These were carriers from many different parts of this country - Tolais, Sepiks and others were loaded onto the ships that went to Buna. I believe you must have known this place. Yes, Buna is in Oro Province. The Japanese wanted the prisoners and others whom they took with them onboard to help them fight the Allies from the mountains of Kokoda down to Port Moresby. They tried but the operation was unsuccessful. Big rivers, high mountain peaks and thick jungle were against them. Many died, including my uncle who died there in the jungles of Buna. Some turned back and ran away on their way to fight. Of those who went to fight, especially on the frontline with the Japanese, very few came back alive. One hero of that fight is still alive at Watam Island. He is very old now, and others have died. When the Americans took over Rabaul from the Japanese they did not punish the Japanese lightly. They did hard work such as covering the huge holes/tunnels and leveling the bunkers that they had built before the fighting. Some of the holes and tunnels are still here because they could not break the cement. The Japanese were hard working people. They were able to withstand the punishment and hard work they received from the Americans. We saw this happened and they worked very hard unlike the Australians who love to socialise most of the time. On the ground the Japanese worked hard and prepared themselves to win the war. The Australians only came in warplanes and bombed the Japanese. Because they won the war that way they were not real men while the Japanese were the heroes of war because of how they worked. An English man, Mr Korofly, came with his little band of soldiers and wanted to challenge the Japanese who came in like the ants but it was impossible. While men were beaten to death by the Japanese for disobedience or making some kind of mistake these penalties also applied to the Japanese themselves. So this rule did not apply to the natives alone but also to the Japanese. Often they used big strong pieces of bamboo to hit you on your head and other parts of your body. You tried not to make even the slightest mistake while they were present because their punishment was painful and cruel. The Kiap issued a warning to all the people that we should tell him about anyone who stole from another person or committed other crimes against them so that he could charge that person under the laws of Japan. I don't know whether those laws of the Japanese during the war still exist today in modem Japan. No those laws were only introduced during the war. We had a very hard time and a man who committed any mistake received thirty strokes from a canes. My uncle who was a Luluai was caned thirty canes and cried bitterly in public. He cried and screamed “Mama! Mama!”. What could we do? He was already in the hands of the law. The Japanese preparations to meet the Americans were huge. If you go to Watam you will see big holes in the stones where they exploded dynamite to make them. You will also see bullet holes, the machine guns in those holes. If the Japanese went today to Watam and saw these things, it would bring their memories back of what the Japanese did during the war. When the war was over at Watam Island about three thousand soldiers who were stationed there collected their guns, bullets, the rifles and other ammunitions and dumped then into the sea. Only the soldiers were doing this job. They pulled all the heavy machines guns and other war equipment from the beaches, the bushes and up in the hills and mountains and brought them down and loaded them onto boats and at night they took them out to sea and threw them in the ocean. Some people secretly hid themselves and watched where they dumped them from a distance. I asked them why they worked so hard collecting those weapons and throwing them away. They said “If we leave them behind the Australians will come and get them, remodify them and then use them against us”. After that they started building a camp on the mainland. They called this camp Brobagwita, Akane- camp. They were based in this camp and all the food supplies on the Island were brought to Akane. They built many more houses. Akane became their main base and soldiers from everywhere on the mainland including, Baining and Nordap, all went to Akane and were stationed there. They were based there and some went to courts and others went to the Supreme Court in Rabaul. Higher-ranking officials went to this Supreme Court. The Supreme Court in Rabaul was located where the present police station is now stands. I don't know whether some of those Japanese were beheaded or not. But when they went to court they were grouped into squads according to air, sea and land. Some successfully won their cases, but we don't know whether those who lost their cases were sentenced to prison in Australia, sent back to Japan or executed. We heard rumors that some were executed but we didn't see it. We were also frightened when the war was over and the Japanese went to court. I worked as a servant for a Captain who was in charge of an assembly called Tawi. He was in charge of those who had been wounded in action. The court house which I mentioned earlier on had a portrait of King George VI in it. During the night when we came close to the courthouse and looked inside we normally saw blood coming down around the picture. The soldiers guarded the courthouse. When the court ended the soldiers waited another two years (1946-1948) for ships to come and take them to go back to Japan. When a ship finally came some soldiers went while others had to wait because the ship was full. One week later another ship came and another load of soldiers went. They went on doing this until all the soldiers were gone. While they were still waiting for the ship to go the soldiers went to the villages to visit their native friends who looked after and helped them during the war. At Watam a Japanese war veteran came and visited recently. Also after the war, Japanese, American and Australian governments allocated funds to PNG and paid for the damage that occurred during the war. My father received some compensation money which helped him to pay for four boats, four plantations and the saw-milling machine. Dr Iwamoto: Did your father work with the Japanese? Joseph: Yes, he was an old man and worked with the Japanese. He didn't do heavy work. Instead he was doing light work. There were also Chinese who fled from Chinatown and wound up in a camp at Latongor. At that time the Chinese were mistreated and all their property destroyed. They had no more food and many were hungry. Sometimes men traded their wives for money and food (sex for money and food). It was a horrible time at that time. The foreigners who came and lived here faced great misery. Women sold their bodies to native men as well as to other foreigners to survive. For those of us who lived on the Island it was okay however those who lived on the mainland were subjected to that life. The Chinese camp at Latangor and the missionaries at Misagal in Kokopo got no more food. In Rabaul people got waste rice which was dumped or disposed by the prostitute house there. My father, with others, used to scoop that rice and put it into bags, wash it, dry it in the sun and put it into bags and keep it at Latangor. When he came home he brought that with him and we cooked it and ate it. Today we live in better times, life was better but in times of wars and troubles you won't be like a man. My family, we were okay. We lived a charitable and caring life. A scar on my body here was a mark from a sword. Singimatsu, a Japanese soldier, hit me with it. I appeared in court because I knew a bit of English. I did try to defend a Ramu man who worked for the Japanese and stole a carton of tinned fish and a bag of rice from their food warehouse. This man stayed with us because his home was far away and he did not have a place to live. He stole those goods and hid them on a beach under a tree some distance away. There was a fruit tree we called gaila in our native language. One day we walked along the beach and picked the fruit. We cooked it and ate it. In the evening as we walked back home along the beach this Ramu man said “I will give you something”. So Waisamu, the Ramu man, Tuwam and I went and divided the food he had hidden and took it home. I stopped my family from cooking and eating that food and because I was a bit suspicious of where it had come from. This was because this man worked for the Japanese, and I didn't think the Japanese would give this food away freely. He must have stolen it. My family obeyed me and didn't cook the food. Not long on a Monday morning the news reached us. It was Tuwam. This Sepik man made a silly mistake by throwing the empty tinned fin cartoon into the sea and the waves washed it back to the beach and the Japanese found it the next morning. They took fingerprints and found out that it was the Ramu man. This man had leprosy on one leg so they were also able to confirmed who the thief was by his footprints in the mud. I was a Simisai, so the Japanese came and asked me to go and find out. I got up and told them straight away that it was this Sepik man and I returned the Japanese. The Sepik man accused the Madang man of stealing the food. I said “No, he didn't steal it don't try to blame him”. The soldier heard me and said that I was a liar. They knew that I knew a bit of English and tried to defend the troublemaker. The court finished and the Japanese took a cartoon of tinned fish and gave it to the troublemaker and said carry it. They started to beat him up until he was unconscious. I tried to tell them to stop beating him because he was about to die so they turned around and beat me. This happened in the court house. Tuwam got up and said “Okay I am prepared to die on this island. You were all thieves but I will die for all your sins”. When he said this the court ended. The Luluais were supporters of the Japanese and they beat us very badly. I was almost half dead (unconscious) and went home and slept. Next morning they said that the execution would take place the following day at the cemetery. They told the two men to go in the morning and dig their own graves and we ourselves were to pick which one would die. I was very sorry for the man who was going to die and early in the morning I reported the matter to the Kaip (Colonial Administrator). We knew who was going to die, we cooked food, ate and slept with him. We got some of our best clothes and dressed him. We asked for the catechist (prayer leader) who came prayed, put oil and baptised him so that his sin could be forgiven before he died. The man stayed with us and they told us to look after him and to make sure he did not escape and run away. The man said “I would not run away, I know I will die here because my place is far away”. We brought him in and got a laplap and a shirt and dressed him. In the morning we cooked a chicken for him to eat. After breakfast they marched him up to the mountain, blind folded him and guided him to the grave. At the graveyard he said to me “Uncle get permission from the boss to allow me to speak to my friends. Remove the piece of laplap that was used to blind fold me”. I asked the Kiap and he said yes. Many people were there to witness the execution. I removed the piece of laplap from his eye. With a loud voice he cried out and said, “Listen to me, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunties, listen to me; I would like to say goodbye to you all. I am a sinful man, the sin that was committed, was not only committed by me but also by some of you. I will die on behalf of you all. Many of you stole food from the Japanese and you escaped. I am not afraid to die because I believe the Catechist has baptised me and all my sins are already forgiven”. After he said all this he called out “Shut my eyes, put back the piece of laplap over my eyes and put me close to the grave”. I was very said and cried for him. The man who was going to execute him took a tin of oil, wet a piece of cloth with it and washed his hands. What does this mean? He did this to protect himself so that the blood of the dead man is not on his hands. He was free, then he took the sword and made the first swing, then a second and a third before the head was chopped off and the body fell into the grave. The villagers covered the grave and went down to the village with sorrows and tears. Auwogi was the only man whom the Japanese killed on the island but on the mainland many were killed. In 1947, we started going back to school. On the island and on the mainland as well children went back to school. Many completed their schooling and got good jobs. I became a teacher and taught in Government schools for seven years. I resigned over pay during that time. We got our pay on a monthly basis. I then set up my own business and became a businessman. After the war the Japanese came and set up many projects. War brought in many new changes to us. Australians and Japanese came back after the war and collected some of the equipment and took it back to their countries. This is the end of my story.