North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Last WWII radio man dies, at 96
The last surviving Coast Watcher of WWII, Takapuna man John Jones, died over the weekend at the age of 96.
Jones was one of the New Zealand radio operators who the New Zealand government virtually left to fend for themselves in the Kiribati islands after the Japanese entered the war.
Most of the others - unarmed volunteers working for the antecedent of New Zealand Post and including Jones’ three best friends - were executed by Japanese sword.
Jones had the good fortune - if you could call it that - of being sent to a prisoner of war camp in Japan.
Jones’ funeral will be at Snapper Rock on Monday, February 13 at 1pm.
He long battled for a memorial for his fellow Coast Watchers and finally saw a permanent memorial unveiled in Wellington in 2014.
The Coast Watchers were unarmed volunteers sent to the remote Gilbert Islands, now Kiribati, just before Japan entered the World War II. Their job was to send reports on German military movements back to Allied forces.
Jones was one of seven Coast Watchers on Butaritari atoll. Days after the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, he was captured and taken to a prison camp in Japan.
Seventeen others were beheaded by the Japanese on Tarawa atoll after being captured in August and September 1942, as retaliation for an American raid on the atolls.
An eighteenth, Ron Third, was based on Ocean Island, now called Banaba, died in captivity after the island was captured by Japan in August that year.
Five other civilians - three Britons, an Australian and a New Zealander - were also killed in the Tarawa massacre.
Toward the end of the war, while still a prisoner, Jones heard from a captured American what had happened to his friends. He remained haunted by the horrific nature of their deaths.
A life-time of sorrow and guilt, along with an anger over the lack of recognition for the Coast Watchers, followed for Jones before the memorial in 2014.