TARAWA AND ITS LESSONS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 251, 23 October 1944, Page 4

TARAWA AND ITS LESSONS

T AST January the British and the United States Governments officially J- , told the world of the information they had compiled concerning the treatment by the Japanese of prisoners of war. It was a horrifying story, and all the worse because, necessarily, it was incomplete. Only a few men of the scores of thousands imprisoned in various parts of the Japanese empire have escaped to tell of what they themselves observed. For some reason not explaind the fact that New Zealanders were among the victims of the atrocities was not then revealed, although it was known; the official declarations were concerned mainly with British, American and Canadian prisoners. The Dominion has had to wait until now to learn of the fate of a small body of its sons who happened to be on the island cf Tarawa on October 15, 1942. On that date seventeen of them, together with five others, were inexcusably and deliberately done to death. This atrocity, fortunately (and fortuitously) small in scale by comparison with other Japanese atrocities elsewhere, furnishes another illustration of the nature of the enemy and of the manner in which he wages war. Little can be said of. it that has not been said many times before. But all New Zealanders, and in particular the bereaved relatives, can feel pride in, and take seme consolation from, the manner in which their countrymen met their end. It has become a legend among the natives who witnessed it. New Zealand should never forget it.

There is a general intention, expressed by the Prime Minister in his comment on the atrocity, that, if possible, the Japanese responsible shall be found and punished. In the nature of things that intention will be difficult and probably impossible to fulfil. If it could be fulfilled, something would be gained, but not much. There are eighty million Japanese, and it would be impossible to impress on all of them the lesson that actions such as those committed at Tarawa are barbarous. But in the circumstances which made this happening possible there is a lesson for New Zealanders, a lesson which if remembered can be fruitful. These young men were among the volunteers who went north to observe and report the southward advance, of the enemy, the advance which the Australians and ourselves, although it concerned us most, were not prepared, either mentally or physically, to step. The enemy was not in great force, but he did not need great force, for there was nothing to oppose him. There was nothing to oppose him because, generally speaking, Australians and New Zealanders had not faced their responsibilities in the Pacific. Perhaps nothing that they, could have done would have stopped the Japanese, after the fall of Singapore, from overwhelming Sumatra, Java and Borneo, but it is unlikely that they could have occupied island after island, right down to the southern Solomons, or have advanced across New Guinea almost to Port Moresby, if some of those islands had been strongly defended It is unlikely also that the Japanese advance would not have gone much further if there had not been a considerable New Zealand force in Fiji or if the A.I.F. had not been recalled to fight in New Guinea.

These are the facts and the probabilities that should be remembered in association with the atrocity on Tarawa. It is easy to feel horror and anger how much will be remembered in the days of peace? When war ceases there is, inevitably, a feeling of revulsion, accompanied by a desire to forget and a willingness to think that nothing of the kind will ever happen again. Military preparedness, and those who advocate it, are not popular. There are many more popular and vcterewarding ways of spending money than in preparing defence plans and maintaining defence forces. Will this happen again after this war? Only public opinion, based on an enduring memory of such happenings as that on Tarawa, can prevent it. The lesson of Tarawa is the lesson of the consequences of unpreparednpss. The consequences, it should also be remembered, are usually not borne directly by those responsible for the unpreparedness, the older generation. They are. borne directly by the young men, and most of all by those who are the first to- volunteer.