NATIVE WARRIORS CHANGE SIDES

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 95, 16 January 1943, Page 5

NATIVE WARRIORS CHANGE SIDES

Jap Atrocities in Papua

(British Official Wireless.) (Received December 15, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, December 14. The action of the fierce, proud, traditional fighting men of Papua, the Orokaivas, to the Japanese landings and behaviour is described by a New Guinea war correspondent. He points out that Orokaivas had no love for the white man, who had banned cannibalism and similar practices, and consequently when the Japanese landed at Buna they found the natives extremely susceptible to their propaganda, which suggested that the Japanese had come to free the natives from the white man’s yoke. The correspondent continues: “Wielding a powerful influence in the Buna and Kokoda area, the Orokaivas instituted a reign of terror, killing natives who did not co-operate with the Japanese, spying on Australian patrols, and doing everything they could to hamper our already difficult defence. Allied airmen who had been shot down in the jungle were killed, and missionaries were massacred. “But the disillusionment of the Orokaivas about the Japanese new order was swift, and today they are among the natives who are carrying down the wounded from the jungle and giving other valuable assistance, Japanese Beastiality.

“Major Elliot Smith, of the Australian New Guinea administrative unit, who lived in peacetime among the Orokaivas as a district magistrate, explains how their awakening came. What really swung the sympathies of these spartan people to our side, he says, was their horror at the filthy habits’of the Japanese, their wastefulness, and their brutality and rough handling of native women. The Orokaivas realized this long before our advance brought us into their country, and when wo arrived the natives were waiting to greet us with gifts. “We heard scores of stories of atrocities which had been perpetrated by the Japanese on natives. Every story was checked and counter-checked, and they showed a total disregard for the normal human decencies. The Japanese regarded native women as fair game, and a girl of 17 died from the effects of her treatment by 24 Japanese soldiers. The Orokaivas were also disgusted at the filthiness of the Japs’ camps, which were revolting in their untidiness and lack of hygiene and sanitation. They were also aghast at the wastefulness displayed when coconut trees were chopped down for a few nuts and whole gardens were ruined in order to obtain a few yams.”