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

Paliau: My name is John Paliau and I come from Gari village in Manus Province. I was born on the 5 November 1932. I have left my native home of Gari and I am now living at Balawat which is my father's home. To start with my story, at that time when the Second World War started and came to Manus my father was a pastor. He worked at the mission station when the war started. One morning my father and I went and hoisted up the flag. All of a sudden an American war plane came and dropped a bomb and destroyed one part of the church building (Haus Lotu). My father placed his hands around me and we both dived down and lay flat on the ground. When the plane flew off, we dashed into the bush and hid till the afternoon. Then we went back to our house. The next morning my father collected every undamaged church item and locked them away safely and we ran away to Bowat. We stayed there for some days and later we went to Liab. There, my father became a teacher. He taught the kids at Liab the Japanese language. He taught for one month and then told them that he would go back to Balawat to see if the houses and other properties of the mission were okay. After he fixed everything at Balawat the Japanese arrived. They came to the mission and asked " Where is the kristo (Christian)”. The people said " He was there up on the hill”. So the Japanese came to my father and asked for the keys to the building. He didn't give them the keys so they punched him. They told him to lie down. Two soldiers held his legs and were about to hit him with a rod when a man came and told him to hand over the keys to them because they might kill him. He finally handed the keys to them. They then opened the doors to the mission houses, broke into the stores and took everything and went back to their camp in Lorengau. Two days later my father said that we must go back to Biak. So we ran away to Biak. At Biak my father again began teaching kids in Japanese. Fighting went on and the Americans dropped bombs which killed many people. We ran away into the bushes and hid for about a month. After that we changed our direction and walked towards the highway and we slept with a married couple. In the morning we walked to my father's village of Muran. At Muran we found a cave in the bush and hid in it for about a week. A man came and told my father that we should leave that cave and go to another one. We moved to another cave and lived there for another three weeks. In the fourth week another call came saying we should leave that cave and go home. The Americans found out about the Japanese hide out which was in the bush. The policemen and the luluais came and told us to leave our hide outs and go home. We then went home after a month of sleeping in caves. Next day we walked down the road to Kup where my father wanted to see the Japanese being shot by the Americans. There were about 300 of the Japanese. On the way my father told my mother, my brother and me to head for the beach. I was crying, I didn't want to go with my mother. I followed my father but he did not see me. I followed him to the place where the bodies of the dead Japanese soldiers were. I hid myself and watched my father dig a big hole and drag all the dead bodies into it. It was a big job my father did. He then covered up the hole and we went to see my mother and brother down at the beach. At the beach we saw the American soldiers coming on a bus. They came and gave us some food. The food was supplied to them by the navy. Some of this food was given to the native people. Dr Iwamoto: I would like you to tell me about the school the Japanese set up. Did you go to that school and how many kids and men went to that school. Paliau: There were about thirty to forty big men who attended the school. They were very interested. My father showed them how to read and write in Japanese and also taught them in pidgin and also other things (hand crafts) and they learnt. There was also a Japanese teacher. The teacher was a middle-aged man. He and my father taught the students. My father's name was Mikel. At that time only my father knew how to read and write so the Japanese used him a lot. Dr Iwamoto: I would also like to hear something about the Americans who came here. Paliau: When the Americans came here, they dropped bombs and that was in 1944. At that time the Japanese were already here in Manus. The Japanese set up their bases everywhere, at Lorengau, Lombrum, and Momoti, where they built an airfield. One small airstrip was built for small single-engined aeroplanes. Another was at Mograng and the big one was at Momoti. Many men from Manus Island came and built Momoti airfield for the Japanese war planes to use and fight the Americans. While they were working on the airfield the Americans came and started bombing it and other places where the Japanese were based. Many people started to run away. The aeroplanes came one after the other. They flew in from some where in the direction of Sandaun (West Sepik), dropped bombs on Momoti, Lorengau and Lya and then disappeared to Sandaun and West Irian before coming back again. The Americans' war planes tried to destroy the Japanese and at the same time the Japanese were also trying to shoot down the American war planes whenever their planes flew low. Whenever the huge machine guns were fired the ground shook and at the same time the planes were flying above in the air and bombs were dropping. Imagine the sound - it was a frightening experience indeed. The war in Manus was a big one. Every man, woman and child knew this. They saw and experienced it. It is such a horrible thing. We didn't understand what the reason was behind this war. The Japanese and Americans knew about it, because this fight was theirs not ours. But for us we were afraid of the bombs and machine guns and other weapons used which affected many of our people. Dr Iwamoto: After the war did you receive any compensation from the Australian Government? Paliau: On Pitilu Island on the other side they received compensation as well as Mukarem. These were places where the bombs did severe damage. At the same time these were the places where the Japanese and Americans had bases and fought each other in the war and not the whole of Manus. But those who died or received injuries during the war didn't receive compensation. This is something which the Japanese and Australian Governments must consider because people died or received injuries during the war. Dr Iwamoto: Very good, thank you very much. Paliau: Welcome and God bless.