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

Dr Iwamoto: Good morning. What is your name? Tovilivian: My name is Levi Tovilivan. Dr Iwamoto: How old are you? Tovilivan: I am 77 years old. Dr Iwamoto: Have you been to a school? Tovilivan: I went to a small village school. Dr Iwamoto: When the Japanese came were you already a big boy? Tovilivan: When the Japanese came I was a young teenage boy. Dr Iwamoto: Tell me your story Tovilivan: When I was doing my government elementary school near Rabaul market at Malaguna I heard about the war that was fought by Hitler of Germany and this could be the one. During that time when we were still at school and it was 1940 we had a holiday and lived in the village when the Japanese arrived. We were scared to go back to school. Because the war planes flew all over taking maps and inspecting the areas. We can not go back to school so we stayed back at the village. The colonial patrol officers (kiaps) came and told the people in the villages to build their houses in the bush so that when the Japanese arrived at our shores people could go and hide in them. So the people started building their houses in the bush. We built one here, another one down the hill and other one up on the hill. It was January 1942 that the Japanese arrived here. When they came, we slept here and to our surprise the Australians who were living in Rabaul arrived too. They came with their trucks loaded with food and belongings. They brought everything to the United Church (Methodist) hall and left them there. Many of them received gun wounds, broken arms and legs. The church hall was stained with blood which we couldn't stand to see. We ran away to the village and later we came back to spy and see what they would do next. As we spied we saw the Japanese carriage travelling in a convoy down the road and all of a sudden the carriage stuck in the muddy ground. They got their machine guns and started shooting in all directions at the village. The Japanese came and got some of us to work with them. We built Palmalmal road to town. After completing this road we built another one from Taviling to Keravia. After that we dug holes to hide the fuel drums. A company called Takai Buddhai owned the petrol company and assisted in digging holes to hide the petrol. At these locations the coconut trees were not chopped. A security guard was put to guard the petrol that was hidden under the ground. After a while another company came and took me and another four men to work with them. They took us and we went to Tauviliu and worked on building a new road. They then used us as cargo carriers between Baining and Tauviliu. We did a lot of work. We would normally leave Tomaringa airport as early at 6.30am. With fear of war planes we would cover ourselves with leaves and leave the airfield. After getting out of the airport we would then remove the leaves walked on. We did this work for many months. It took almost three days to carry cargo to the Japanese at Baining. We met them and some of them came with us. We would then leave them at Rabaul and we would have to carry the cargo back to Baining. Along the road we would come across dead horses and cows all over the place. We skipped over them with cartons of tinned fish, bags of rice and sugar on our backs. After all this they asked me to stay back and work for Takai Buddhai. I was chosen as a leader to lead others to make gardens for Takai Buddhai. Our ears were always open to know what was going on. Some people worked down at a Kenpetai (police) station. At this police station, we heard that they killed many people there. Peter Torot was also killed at this place. We were not allowed to go close to this place. When they said we were so afraid to go any closer to the place. There was a cemetery near the mission station. The people who were shot dead at the police station were brought up and buried here. Normally if a man was about to die the police would pick him up in the early morning and take him to the cemetery and make him dig his own grave. He would then be brought back to the policemen. At about one o'clock the man would be escorted by police to the cemetery. The Japanese, the man's friends and relatives who also went with him stood by and the man would be asked to say his last words to his friends or family members. The victim would confess his wrong doings or and warned others not to follow or do the same things which would result in death. He also warned his family and friends to obey the soldiers. He was already blind folded and while he was talking there was no body there to listen because everybody was afraid and stood far away. A lit cigarette was given to the man. While smoking the cigarette he also gave a last talk. The kenpei watched the cigarette burn down and when it was finished his neck was cut off. The man gave a last shout and he was pushed with the edge of the sword and the body fell into the hole and the hole was covered. Dr Iwamoto: Why did the Japanese soldiers kill the people? Tovilivan: Small mistakes like accusing people of making fire at night. The people were warned not to make any fires at night. They feared that if their enemies saw the fires they would come and kill them. If they discovered any newspapers or other written papers in our bags, we would be accused and put to death. We lived this life for four years. We did many things in these four years. We lived in the village at that time when they took us down to build the airfield at Kokopo. Many things happened during that time. The men wouldn't come to work. One time we built the road down and five men from the village arrived late for work and each of them received fifty whips. It was a severe punishment and the men almost died. That was how the Japanese soldiers treated us. In Topera the next village, there was a man who stood on the bed, probably misbehaved a bit. They took him and shot him to death. There were many of our people who were killed by the bombs. My sister was one of them. The Japanese and then the Americans came and dropped bombs. Many of our people received wounds and also died because we lived among the Japanese. At times we didn't have any clothes (laplaps) to wear. Dr Iwamoto: Did the Japanese give you any food? Tovilivan: If we went to work then they would give us food. However, if we stayed in the village we got nothing. We made big gardens to supply them with food. At times they would tell us to go up the roads to Nonga, Rabaul and the North Coast to collect snails. There were a lot of big snails there. We collected them and put them in the boxes and brought them back. They ate these snails as their food. There was a ladies house at Ramalmal. Dr Iwamoto: Were those ladies your women? Tovilivan: They were Japanese ladies. Only the Japanese soldiers were allowed to go but not us. If any of our natives were found there they would be shot to death. Another disturbing experience happened in 1945 before the war ended the Japanese soldiers dug holes and when the men went inside the soldiers shot them. They did this to men only and the women were left behind. We were busy preparing our holes and to our surprise we saw some small aero planes fly over and throw some papers down. On these papers were the pictures of tumbuan tuktuk (picture of the traditional masks) with this message written on it " no more fight". We were so happy when we saw this message. The war was over. The Americans came in their planes and landed at Rabaul.