RECOVERY of HUMAN REMAINS

 

BUNA & GONA BEACHES

Every year is no different.

Here or there, on the beaches, in the swamps, in the jungles, a war wreck is found in Papua New Guinea.

Sometimes, the wreck may hold the bones of those who perished in World War II.

There are thousands of these wrecks still to be recovered in Papua New Guinea.

In mid 2019, some human remains were found in Buna and Gona.

These places, along with Sananda were beachheads for the Japanese Imperial Army.

These beautiful sandy shores were turned into bloody fronts when the allies, Australia and United States launched an offensive to drive the Japanese off the beach heads.

Many war dead lay buried in the sand where they fell. Others were taken over by the swamps and the jungle.

Over the last 75 years since war's end,  here and there, a discovery is made.

The task of identifying these remains normally falls on the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Account Agency (DPAA) if they are American, Papua New Guinea and the PNG National Museum and Art Gallery,  and the Australian Unrecovered War Causalities – Army (UWC-A).

in 2019, a group of United States (US) Defense personnel were in Buna to receive the remains of service members who fought and died during World War II along the northern beaches of Northern Province.

The skeletal remains were handed over by local villagers at the newly constructed Buna Community Museum and Trade Centre during formal ceremonies held on  May 21-22.

The U.S. Defense POW/MIA Account Agency (DPAA) has been working in the area for some time and were grateful to receive the remains from the community.

“DPAA would like to give a special thanks to the people and government officials of Papua New Guinea and the PNG National Museum and Art Gallery, whose combined efforts and dedication have enabled DPAA to further its progress in achieving the fullest possible accounting of our WWll missing,” said DPAA team leader Captain Justin Harty.

“DPAA relies heavily on our cooperative relationships in order to conduct these types of humanitarian efforts. We look forward to pursuing our accounting efforts for years to come.”

The handover ceremonies were also attended by representatives from the National Museum and Art Gallery (NMAG) and the Australian Army.

NMAG’s Principal Curator for Modern History, Gregory Bablis, said: “the NMAG works closely with Australia, the USA and Japan on all recovery efforts. We are thankful to the communities of Buna and surrounding areas who have assisted in the repatriation of these remains from an area that witnessed some of the most intense engagement of US troops during the Kokoda campaign of World War II.”

Major Scott Heiman from the Australian Unrecovered War Causalities – Army (UWC-A) office said the handover ceremonies are a key part of joint recovery and repatriation operations.

“The handover ceremony demonstrates the close ties between the United States, Australia and Papua New Guinea, as we work with communities across the country to account for our grandfathers who remain unrecovered from WWII.”

In early June, the DPAA repatriated the remains and others to the US for identification.