WORLD WAR II WAR GRAVES BOMANA

 

above: Bomana War Cemetery

below: Japanese Ambassador Satoshi Nakajima.

 

WHERE ARE THE JAPANESE WAR GRAVES IN BOMAMA? 

By BIG PAT

EVERY year, on ANZAC Day, the Last Post is sounded for all in the surrounding Bomana Valley to remember our war dead.

To recount the sacrifice, relive the horrors, remember the heroes of a war our fathers fought side by side with the Allies, relive the challenges our forefathers carried by their courageous efforts on the bloody Kokoda Track and elsewhere in other forgotten tracks of equal desperation and gallantry.

But one question that still lingers over every Bomana celebration is one of pity, for it involves the resting place of the vanquished - the dead of the Japanese Imperial Army.

It seems, some of their dead, whose bodies the allies may have recovered, were interred at Bomana.

Where exactly, no-one knows.

But it has been a matter of discussion and has pricked interest over the years.

The following appeared in the PNG Attitude online which was generated by a letter to this newspaper by a Harumi Sakaguchi who wrote some years ago: "Please readers, I need your help! I am a Japanese national. Until August 2004, I was in Port Moresby on a 4-year assignment for the United Nations (I was the UNDP resident rep.). I lived in Touaguba Hill and visited your office from time to time. My research on the Japanese servicemen buried at Bomana is one of the topics I have been pursuing since I returned to Japan. No one consulted so far knows the location of the Japanese burials except that it was in Bomana. No official record exists that remains were repatriated to Japan. I have decided to seek your assistance after researching the subject for almost two years. Readers who have reliable information can email me at zerosenhs@jcom.home.ne.jp Harumi Sakaguchi, Taasaki-city, Japan

In response to that letter reproduced in PNG Attitude, a certain Dr Robin Hide wrote: "Perhaps one of your readers may have more information."  “It sounds unlikely. And it’s certainly not mentioned in a recent online paper ‘Return to New Guinea: comparing Australian and Japanese memories ...’, which includes the following footnote: ‘After the war, the Australian war graves units reported it could only identify the remains of only 246 Japanese in New Guinea, while the remains of another 330 Japanese were ‘unidentified’. [Cemeteries established by Australian War Graves units, A518, item G016/2/1 Part 1, National Archives of Australia], Canberra, Australia.’"

Then this: "I have just heard back from Harumi himself, who is seeking the actual location of the soldiers’ burial.

He writes: "It was exactly on 30 November 2007 that I first learned, through Office of Australian War Graves in Canberra, of the existence of the very archived item you have mentioned where, more specifically, burial of a total 136 Japanese, including 80 identified, in a Japanese War Cemetery in Bomana, is indeed mentioned in a table compiled by the Department of Army. In fact it was none other than Dr Karl James, who, upon follow up made by OAWG, responded by citing this source and the figure for Bomana."

Harumi says that this section was left out of the published letter in the Post-Courier:

"According to Australian archives, a total 136 Japanese soldiers were buried in a war cemetery established in Bomana by Australian War Grave Registration. An official record states that as many as 80 of them had been identified. Some of the Japanese buried were navy air airmen shot down in Port Moresby raids. Others were army soldiers who died while undergoing treatment at the 2/9 Australian General Hospital. Many of the army men had been captured at Giruwa at the tail end of the Owen Stanley campaign. Strangely, no official record has been found that can confirm that, after the war, the remains of these Japanese were recovered and cremated, and the ashes repatriated to Japan. In fact, the precise location of the war-time Japanese War Cemetery in Bomana has not been determined."

Dr Hide further asked on April 17, 2009: "I am writing to seek contact PNG nationals who may have reliable information about the location of the Japanese burials in Bomana. Local residents used to be engaged to work in Bomana during the war. Some of them may still be in good health and able to remember burials of deceased Japanese.

"Their relatives may be able to share relevant information. If the remains were exhumed and cremated in preparation for the repatriation to Japan, the work involved would have been a major one, considering the number of the remains involved; many local people may have witnessed the event. I want to thank in advance the interested readers for their possible cooperation in information sharing."