laststandonzombieisland

When officials found human remains in an old Japanese medical dump in Papua New Guinea this year, they may have done
more than locate two missing World War II commandos. Instead, they may have unlocked a Pandora’s box involving continuing censorship and the failure to punish those involved in some of the worst war crimes perpetrated on Australian soldiers in the Pacific War.

In April, the Australian Defence Force confirmed it had discovered bones suspected of being those of missing commandos Spencer Walklate and Ron Eagleton on Kairiru Island, about 20 kilometres from Wewak on Papua New Guinea’s northern coast.

Walklate, 27, a one-time St George rugby league player, and Eagleton, 20, had gone missing during a raid to reconnoitre  Japanese gun emplacements on Mushu Island, just to the south of Kairiru on April 11, 1945. The raid failed when their boats capsized in the surf and they were attacked before completing their objective. Hunted across the island, the eight Australians fought on before most were killed or wounded. Eagleton and Walklate were thought to have tried to avoid capture by floating out into the ocean on palm logs, where they drowned or were killed by the Japanese.

But when the bones were found on Kairiru this year, and information was obtained from the island’s elders, it suggested the men had suffered a different fate – one that had been covered up for decades.

Read more here if you don’t get too squeamish: