Target: Rabaul (71 page)

The most senior member of the trio was a squadron leader, equivalent to a major, which meant the surrender would be a formality. Still, when the party arrived at the appointed place, they received a surprise. “Their interpreter said that Vice Admiral Kusaka had malaria and could not be present for the surrender,” recalled Vahry. “I shattered all by saying, ‘Get him here immediately,’ and they did!”

As the commander of Rabaul’s naval forces, Kusaka had surrendered his sword four days earlier aboard HMS
Glory
; now he officially surrendered the remaining aircraft: three Zeros and an army Ki-46 Dinah. On September 16, wearing a coat of whitewash and large crosses in lieu of their wartime markings, the planes were flown by Japanese pilots to Jacquinot Bay. The following month a repaired Kate joined them, closing the book on the JNAF in World War II.

Vahry stayed on at Rabaul, with orders to collect as much Japanese equipment as he could. “There was a bit of innuendo,” he recalled, “for me to do it alone and do it prior to the Australians being able to get the gear.” For several weeks, he scoured the tunnels and manhandled all manner of equipment into his jeep. He also explored the Gazelle Peninsula with his camera, making a visual record of what the enemy had left behind—including the graves of Allied POWs. When the records of missing personnel were checked, it quickly became evident that thousands of Allied airmen were still unaccounted for.

Approximately one hundred thousand Japanese troops were moved into encampments. They were not free to leave until vetted as innocent of any war
crimes, a process that took years. Eventually, with the cooperation of local islanders, interrogators learned about the mass graves near Matupi Harbor. This, in turn, led to investigations by a team of RAAF specialists whose sole purpose was to recover the remains of airmen lost in the Southwest Pacific. Led by Wing Cmdr. Keith M. Rundle, the team visited Rabaul repeatedly over several years and found most of the execution sites. One large mass grave was not discovered until 1950.

But by that time, the Korean War and the Cold War were major distractions. War crimes trials in Tokyo had not been carried out with as much vindictiveness as the famous Nuremburg trials; and although postwar investigations against individual Japanese perpetrators continued, MacArthur and the American occupation forces were busy rebuilding Japan. The American people, striding into a new era of prosperity and responsibility as a world superpower, looked forward. The calls for retribution faded. Ultimately, several high-profile Japanese war criminals were hung, and some committed suicide. The great majority simply served out prison sentences, many of which were reduced.

Lieutenant Yoshio Okawara stayed in a Rabaul encampment until April 1947. Four years later he traveled to the United States to study under the GAROA (Government Aid for Reconstruction of Occupied Areas) program. After nearly three decades of diplomatic service, Okawara was named ambassador to Australia in 1976. In 1980, the former Imperial Navy officer at Rabaul became Japan’s ambassador to the United States.

Like Japan, Rabaul was rebuilt. It became a popular tourist destination and dive center, and even enjoyed a resurgence in commercial shipping for a few decades. Sunken ships and war relics attracted all manner of recreational divers, adventurers, and amateur enthusiasts. The vast tunnel networks remained a treasure trove of Japanese items. A few lucky blokes like Mike Hutcheson, who worked at the Rabaul Volcano Observatory in the mid-1970s, spent “every spare moment” exploring tunnels, barge hideaways, gun emplacements, and numerous bunkers. The spaces were littered with everything from ammunition to ampules of medicine to old mess kits.

To this day, airplane wrecks are still being discovered all over New Britain and in the waters around Rabaul. Several veterans who bailed out of crippled planes later made a pilgrimage to find the wreckage—always a challenge in the dark jungles of the island. Two of several who succeeded were Joe Holguin and Fred Hargesheimer. With the help of islanders, along with Australian and New Zealand wreck experts who had lived on New Britain for decades, Holguin found
Naughty But Nice
. The skeletal remains of a few crewmates were later recovered by the U.S. Army Central Identification Lab and buried in their hometowns. Holguin attended the memorials.

Hargesheimer returned to New Britain in 1960 to visit the villagers and
luluai
who had helped him survive—and he decided to do more. Back in the States, he started a foundation that raised more than fifteen thousand dollars. In 1963 he
returned to New Britain and built the Airmen’s Memorial School. Fred and his wife subsequently made several more trips and even lived on the island for a stretch of four years, as described in Fred’s autobiography,
The School That Fell from the Sky
.

Rabaul continued to prosper until the
kaia
got restless again. On September 19, 1994, the notorious Tavurvur crater erupted spectacularly. Thanks to evacuation drills and early warnings from volcanologists, only five individuals died, some by lightning strikes generated by the pulsating eruptive column. However, an estimated 80 percent of the buildings in Rabaul collapsed due to the weight of the ash fall, and the provincial capital was relocated to Kokopo.

Rabaul has still not fully recovered. It may never recover. And it will never be like it was in the years before World War II. During its heyday, Rabaul was a lovely tropical port of call. Those were days of progress, days of peace, when giant casuarinas and mango trees shaded the boulevards, and men in tropical suits and ladies in flowered sundresses strolled past gardens of bougainvillea, frangipani, and hibiscus, and thought their lives could not get any better.

Maybe they were right.

APPENDIX A

The Prisoners of Rabaul

The following list represents the names of known Allied military personnel captured in the Rabaul area and held by the 81st Naval Garrison Unit or the 6th Field Kempeitai. The list does not include members of Lark Force executed in early 1942, nor does it include the Royal Artillery personnel captured at Singapore and transferred to Rabaul in 1942. It also does not include individuals who were reported missing and presumed to be POWs. The men listed here were seen at Rabaul by other parties.

The phrase “died of neglect” is not intended to minimize the suffering that so many prisoners endured. Whether they died of starvation, illness, tropical disease, or complications from untreated wounds, all were utterly neglected by their captors.

To the extent possible, names, dates, and circumstances have been cross-referenced with the POW database at the National Archives and Records Administration (USAAF, USMC, USN), the Australian War Memorial nominal roll (RAA, RAAF), and available RNZAF records.