Shocking omission

How can the loss of 1053 Australian POWs on July 1, 1942 not rate a mention, in any of the Anzac commemorations or by the PM, especially since he was in the area? We watched and read about the PM walking part of the Kokoda Trail and its significance. Kokoda is rightly commemorated as one of our most well known theatres of war – 625 Australians were killed in the Kokoda campaign and by the way, so were 2000 “Fuzzy-Wuzzy Angels”.

Sadly for many families, no mention is ever made of the 1053 Australians from Rabaul, which, at the time, was the capital of the Australian mandated territory of

New Guinea – soldiers and civilians, who perished in the sinking of the Japanese merchant ship, the Montevideo Maru.

The ship was sunk by an American submarine because there was no indication that there were POWs on board.

The 2/22 battalion of the AIF, Lark Force, as it was known, was sent to Rabaul in 1941 in anticipation of a Japanese invasion. There were civilians working there, as it was administered by Australia.

In January 1942, fresh from their attack on Pearl Harbour, the Japanese dropped the first bombs on the New Guinea islands.

Most civilians were evacuated and were told not to speak about where they came from to avoid panic in Australia.

Some 1400 troops from Lark Force and the 1 Independent Group were to remain to “fight to the last” against the invading Japanese navy and air force. There were no food dumps or medicines, no reinforcements. They were told “every man for himself”. (Any wonder this was covered up by the Australian government and military leaders.)

For six long months, Japanese brutality towards the POWs and interned civilians and missionaries resulted in 150 killed in the Tol Massacre and in June, 1053 POWs were loaded on to the unmarked Japanese hell ship, the Montevideo Maru, which was subsequently sunk the next month.

There were no survivors.

This remains Australia’s greatest maritime tragedy, yet it is still ignored, covered up and forgotten, despite the shipwreck being found last year on April 22, under the sea, off the coast of the Philippines 81 years after it sank.

My beautiful grandmother was only ever told that her eldest son was a POW in Rabaul, then some time later, he was “lost at sea”.

Jan Loveday, Mount Duneed